The Year the Rain Fell on Jinling

(Coming soon: Plucking Cardamom Buds. Please add it to your favorites! Blurb at the bottom.)

Su Nianqing and Chu Yixuan were bound together by an imperial decree of marriage.

One was the daughter of the Prince of Zhenbei and the Grand Princess, born to wealth and honor, and commander of 150,000 troops stationed on the northern frontier.

The other came from a humble background. He rose to power by helping the emperor eliminate his rivals, stepping over countless wronged souls and corpses, until he held sway over the entire court.

This marriage was an obvious mismatch. Anyone could see that the emperor wanted to strip the Su family of its power. People could only pity the beautiful young woman, so delicate and deserving of sympathy. What kind of torment would she suffer at the hands of that wicked minister?

But before the beauty could waste away, the capital fell into chaos, the treacherous minister rebelled, and the emperor died.

The emperor's most prized weapon had turned against him.

They would never know that when every man of the Su family died for their country and the Grand Princess followed them in death, Chu Yixuan had helplessly watched the woman he loved don mourning clothes and silver armor, taking it upon herself to shoulder the shattered northern frontier.

He had fought his way up the ranks, all so that one day he could shelter her from the storm.

Coming soon: Plucking Cardamom Buds. Blurb:

Jiang Tang was the current emperor's second empress.

If all went as expected, she would follow her father's plan and quietly become a figurehead dowager empress after the ailing emperor breathed his last.

Sure enough, less than two years later, the emperor died. With the crown prince still young, the various factions began to stir, until the Prince of Yi's heir, who had always kept out of worldly affairs, led his army into the capital.

Life had no bottom, it seemed; it could always get worse. Who was this heir to the Prince of Yi? He had once been Jiang Tang's betrothed. He had waited for her with all his heart for four years, only for her to call off the engagement and enter the imperial palace as empress. What a resounding slap in the face.

As the strongest military power in the realm, he was hardly likely to treat Jiang Tang kindly once she fell into his hands.

In the misty rain of that year, Xue Bushu entered the hall in silver armor. It was the first time he had looked at his former fiancée from such close quarters.

The dowager empress was in the bloom of youth, dressed in white and leaning beside the late emperor's coffin. Her shining eyes uneasily surveyed everything around her. She looked utterly pitiful.

He irritably closed his eyes, then stepped close and cornered her. "Do you want to secure your hold on the throne? Then offer yourself in exchange!"

At first, one consolidated the court while the other ruled the inner palace. They occasionally crossed paths, but otherwise kept to their own domains.

That was until the dowager empress, touched by all his hard work, sent him money, jewelry, and beautiful women.

Xue Bushu's brow twitched as he looked at the dozen or so beauties, each with her own charms. That night, he strode into the palace with a dark expression and finally said what had been left unspoken. Holding her by the waist, he forced her back until her eyes reddened and she had nowhere to retreat. "I said you had to offer yourself in exchange. Do you understand, Your Majesty?"

Theme: Love of country and loyalty to the sovereign come first