Carved Jade

Cover art thanks to BS Gugu~

Wei Yunyu died on the day of her coronation as empress, poisoned by a cup of nuptial wine from the new emperor. Only after death did she learn that she was merely a minor character in a storybook, appearing in the protagonist's memories and dispatched in a few brief lines.

After her death, the scumbag would take in her half-sister, who looked a little like her, as a concubine out of ridiculous remorse, and stage a tragic romance about a replacement. Wei Yunyu herself would be the "poor soul" who died young, according to her half-sister.

Unwilling to accept this, Wei Yunyu came back from the dead and saved another dying person: Qi Yun, the late emperor's ninth son.

The late emperor's ninth son, Qi Yun, had suffered humiliation and abuse from childhood because his mother was lowborn. As a young man, he left the capital and pacified the Northwest, winning remarkable military honors. But just as he was at the height of his youthful ambition, his father and brothers grew wary of him, stripped him of power, and exiled him to a frigid, snowbound region in the Northwest.

Everyone thought the ninth prince Qi Yun was a man full of murderous fury, incapable of romance.

No one knew how many years Qi Yun had spent thinking of Wei Yunyu through the endless days and nights of wind and sand on the border.

In Qi Yun's eyes, Wei Yunyu only had eyes for his elder brother, loving him deeply. Qi Yun was no more than a wild dog who had received a little kindness and pity from her in childhood.

When his elder brother ascended the throne, Wei Yunyu was crowned empress and entered the palace. The only person Qi Yun had ever cared for would shine at someone else's side. He had nothing left to hope for in this world.

An imperial edict sentencing him to death by a thousand cuts left his body scarred and soaked in blood. Qi Yun was buried in the icy wilderness, taking with him the love he had never spoken aloud.

He never expected that, as he lay dying after enduring a hundred kinds of pain, he would see Wei Yunyu again.

She crossed a thousand miles to reach him, and in the Northwest wilderness, her freezing hands pulled him from the snow, his body stiff with cold, rekindling the fire of hope in his heart...

Later, all the killing and risking his life that Qi Yun did was for her, so she could live in peace and safety for the rest of her life.

[Coming soon] Shattered Exquisite Dice

Shen Linglong first met Qi Zhen when she was thirteen. The young man was elegant and handsome, and led her to safety from a rain of arrows.

Beneath the lanterns on the Lantern Festival night, a young girl's heart fell into a love from which there was no escape.

He was the heir to the throne, while she was a daughter of the Hou household born to a concubine. Once she learned his identity, all she could do was gaze at him from afar, never daring to want more.

Until she was fifteen, when Qi Zhen was caught up in a treason case, stripped of his title, and confined to the Southern Garden.

The Hou household refused to marry their legitimate daughter to a prince who was destined never to ascend the throne, so they plotted to send the concubine-born girl to the Southern Garden to wed the Crown Prince.

By a twist of fate, Linglong became his wife.

Life in the Southern Garden was hard, but Linglong never worried.

She had married the man she had always dreamed of, and loved him with all her heart.

Five years later, Qi Zhen returned to his position as Crown Prince, but Shen Linglong became invisible in the Eastern Palace.

Qi Zhen looked down on a girl born to a concubine, and after returning to the Eastern Palace, he did not believe she could be the Crown Princess.

Linglong kept all her pain to herself, always telling herself that he had his reasons.

But even the hottest love can turn cold after being disappointed time and again.

Later, when Qi Zhen ascended the throne, the woman sitting in the empress's seat was not Shen Linglong.

In the end, he still chose her legitimate older sister.

On that day, the coronation and empress's investiture ceremonies were held together. No one noticed the fire suddenly flaring on a high tower deep in the palace.

Five years of deep love, five years of sharing hardships, five years of enduring humiliation and yielding, and all she got in return was his words: "You cannot compare to my principal wife."

What a farce this life had been...

Qi Zhen rushed over in a panic, his eyes bloodred. He stumbled into the flames, only to see a charred corpse.

With the fire raging and her life or death unknown, Qi Zhen forgot all the glory and prestige of his life. All he could remember was a little girl from the Lantern Festival years ago, smiling brightly as she gave him an exquisite dice and asked if he ever thought of her...

Note: The male lead pursues his wife after losing her, but the female lead is alive.

[Coming soon, 2] She Became the New Emperor's Lover After Divorce

In the spring of the first year of Yuanhe, the emperor traveled to Jiangnan and stayed at the home of the wealthy merchant Shen family.

The young mistress of the Shen household dropped her cup when she saw the emperor's face.

A year earlier, the young master of the Shen family had brought a courtesan into the household, and his wife, Wei You, had gone to stay at her family's estate.

In the neighboring courtyard lived a handsome young man recovering from an injury, as beautiful as jade.

Life at the estate was dull, so Wei You often teased the young man. Before long, they crossed the line.

It was only a brief affair, and she never took it to heart.

She never expected that her handsome lover from the past would look exactly like the new emperor. Wei You nearly fainted from shock and hurriedly lowered her head.

Above her, the new emperor looked down at her and the husband beside her, grinding the jade pendant at his waist to pieces in his fury.

When Zhao Jingxuan was Crown Prince, he met a beautiful woman in the Jiangnan countryside.

She was as bewitching as a mountain spirit. Young and experiencing love for the first time, he believed he had indulged her in everything and gone along with all her wishes, hoping only to stay with her forever. He never realized she had merely been playing with him.

When she left, she sold the estate and vanished without a trace. Even the name she had given him and the stories she'd told about herself were lies.

Zhao Jingxuan returned to the capital, thinking he could put the heartless young woman behind him, but her maddening image appeared in his dreams every night.

As he tossed and turned in the middle of the night, he thought that if he could have her one more time, use her as a plaything, perhaps the resentment in his heart would finally fade.

So after ascending the throne, he returned to Jiangnan and deliberately chose to stay with the Shen family in Gusu.

The Shen family was the home of that young woman. Zhao Jingxuan looked forward to seeing her panic and fall to her knees to beg for mercy when she learned his identity. He never expected that the sight of her with her husband would be the first thing to make him lose his composure...

Theme: No matter how many twists and turns life brings, don't lose hope in fate. The right person will come through the storm to find you at some unexpected turn