The Concubine's Husband (A Matriarchal World)

Everyone in Qixia City knew that Xiang Ning, the legitimate son of the Marquis of Jinping, was refined and well-mannered, with a strikingly handsome face. His father's family was powerful, and he had been promised since childhood to the granddaughter of the Duke of Anguo. He was destined to inherit a title and enjoy every luxury.

His family's illegitimate son, Xiang Wan, on the other hand, was merely the child of a concubine, looked down on by everyone. It was only because the old matriarch had pleaded for him that he was grudgingly brought back to the residence. Even the lowliest servants dared to treat him with contempt.

One day, he lowered his head as his legitimate father told him, "Given your background, you're unlikely to get anywhere. As your father, I have to look out for you. Go to the Duke of Anguo's residence as A Ning's attendant and marry along with him. It's the greatest good fortune you could hope for."

He, too, thought that someone like him ought to be content with that.

But on the day of the noble families' spring outing, when the families were discreetly sizing each other up, he watched the little princess Si Mingyu, a notorious wastrel, lean close to the daughter of the Duke of Anguo and then arch a brow at him. "What a beauty. It'd be a waste to make you an attendant. Do me a favor and let me have him as my prince-consort, will you?"

Content warning:

Women rule, and men can bear children.

Please add my new story to your reading list: The Imperial City Walls (Matriarchal Society)

Everyone said that Su Jin, Lord Su, was the most ungrateful person in the world.

A man serving as Imperial Tutor was an unprecedented honor. The royal family had bestowed an extraordinary favor upon him.

And yet it was he who had protected the young, isolated empress and guided her step by step through a court full of wolves. Just as victory was within reach, he turned around and betrayed her, conspiring with the traitors.

After his plot was exposed and he was captured, he knelt in the great hall with a smile still on his face. "All these years at your side, I was only there because it made things easier. The court officials all feared me. You were the easiest one to fool."

The empress showed mercy. She spared his life, asking only that he disappear from court and live quietly in the inner palace as her consort.

Everyone thought Lord Su ought to be grateful.

But on the day of his investiture, dressed in brilliant red ceremonial robes, he leapt to his death right under the empress's eyes, splattering blood across the palace walls...

When Chu Ying woke, she had returned to the age of fifteen.

She was not yet the wise ruler she would become, and the person who would torment her until the day she died was still alive.

Rumor had it throughout the court that Lord Su served the new empress by day and worked to produce heirs for the royal family by night. Truly... diligent and admirable.

Theme: Portraying a love that transcends status and rank, and expressing the purity and beauty of love