The Usurping Tyrant Is Both Cruel and Cunning

[I want to write historical romance. Please add it to your list, everyone!]

Wen Lanzheng, a beautiful and gentle daughter of heaven, is renowned throughout Chang'an for her soft, rain-soaked voice. Since childhood, she has been promised in marriage to Prince Ning.

But on the day of her hairpin ceremony, Prince Ning comes to her and bluntly says he already has a future princess in mind, telling her to stop pursuing him.

In a flash of firelight, she returns to the Qixi Festival when she was a young girl and first met Prince Ning.

She hurriedly avoids the Qixi Bridge, where her nightmare began, only to turn and see a young boy who has offended the powerful nearly whipped to death.

Their eyes meet. The boy's pale, beautiful face is just as it was in her previous life, when, trapped in a sea of flames and covered in blood, he still led her out of the abyss.

Gathering her courage, she steps forward and shields him from the bloody blows with her frail body, even if it means falling once more into the hands of Prince Ning, who is only pretending to be powerful.

From then on, not only is the entire Wen household spared annihilation, but the nine provinces are also pacified after half a century of turmoil caused by his madness.

The new emperor, Rong Jun, is blessed with a handsome face. Sadly, he is cruel and vicious, his hands stained with the blood of his father and brothers. He is the very opposite of a benevolent ruler.

He wields his butcher's knife to make the powerful live or die at his whim. His inhuman methods leave Chang'an devastated, and the people of the nine provinces live in constant fear, cursing the demon and wishing he would go to hell.

What they don't know is that, at midnight, the demon lays down his butcher's knife and, dressed in spotless white, keeps a lonely vigil at the vacant home of the late Minister of State, remaining there all night.

At last, the demon provokes the wrath of heaven and the hatred of all. Returning to the bridge where they first met, he encounters Prince Ning first. Though his flesh is torn and bloody from the whipping, the only thing in his deep, star-bright eyes is Wen Lanzheng, steadfastly protecting him.

Just as in his previous life, he obediently follows her to the Wen residence, willing to become her devoted servant.

But in this life, he will protect her, guard her family, and overturn the heavens.

*Male lead plays the pig to eat the tiger + sweet on the outside, dark within + genuinely calculating. He is actually two years older than the female lead, but pretends to be younger. Has a harem but no consummated relationships.

*One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's only partners. Guaranteed sweetness, no angst. Please add it to your list~

First version: 2021/3/15. Final version: 2021/3/18. (Timestamps saved in my notes. Any similarities are purely coincidental. No baseless accusations or drama.)

Theme: In this life, it's enough to live with a clear conscience.