Shen Linglong first met Qi Zhen when she was thirteen. The young lord was graceful and striking. He led her to safety as arrows rained down around them.
Beneath the lanterns on the Lantern Festival night, the young girl fell in love, doomed to suffer for it.
He was the heir to the throne, while she was a concubine-born daughter of a marquis's household. Once she learned who he was, she could only gaze at him from afar, never daring to let herself want too much.
When Linglong was fifteen, Qi Zhen was caught up in a wrongful accusation of treason. He was stripped of his position as heir and confined to the Southern Residence. The Marchioness refused to marry her legitimate daughter to a disgraced crown prince who would never ascend the throne, so she schemed to send her concubine-born daughter to the Southern Residence to marry Qi Zhen.
By a twist of fate, Linglong became his wife.
Life in the Southern Residence was harsh, but Linglong never let it trouble her.
She had married the man of her dreams and gave him all the love and tenderness in her heart.
Three years later, Qi Zhen regained his position as heir, but Linglong became invisible in the Eastern Palace.
In Qi Zhen's eyes, Linglong was unworthy of being his wife. He looked down on her because she was born of a concubine, and even after returning to the Eastern Palace, he did not think she could be crown princess.
No matter how bitter she felt, Linglong never told anyone. She always told herself that he had his reasons.
But even the deepest passion can grow cold after being disappointed time and again.
Later, Qi Zhen ascended the throne, but Shen Linglong was not the one who became empress.
In the end, he chose her legitimate elder sister.
On the day of his enthronement, the empress's investiture ceremony was held as well. No one noticed the sudden blaze on the high tower deep within the palace.
One glance in their youth had made her fall in love. She had stood by him through hardship, swallowing humiliation and yielding time after time, only to receive this in return: "You are unfit to be my rightful wife."
What a laughable life...
Qi Zhen rushed over in panic, his eyes blood-red. He stumbled into the blaze, only to find a charred corpse.
With flames filling the sky and life or death uncertain, Qi Zhen forgot all the glory and honor of his life. All he could remember was a little girl, years ago on Lantern Festival night, smiling brightly as she gave him a Linglong die and asked if he had ever missed her...
Coming soon: Reborn After a Tragic Ending as Emperor and Empress
Xie Wanyi married Zhao Huaijin when she was fourteen. They were young newlyweds, bound together for life. Later, Zhao Huaijin ascended the throne, and she was made empress as his first wife.
Along with the decree appointing her empress came an imperial edict ordering the legitimate daughter of the Xie family to enter the palace as a consort.
Though everyone knew the new emperor had been in love with the Xie family's legitimate daughter since his youth, they all sighed over Xie Wanyi's good fortune.
Born an illegitimate daughter, she had now become empress, mother of all under Heaven. Even the legitimate daughter of the Xie family, once famed throughout the capital, had to serve as her consort. What a life of glory and splendor.
They said that the new emperor had insisted on making Xie Wanyi empress despite her lowly birth, and had placed the legitimate daughter of the Xie family beneath her. Surely that proved just how deep the bond between husband and wife was.
Xie Wanyi believed it too.
Until one day, she heard Zhao Huaijin say in the imperial hall that he had never regarded her as his wife. He had given her the throne of empress only because she had accompanied him for ten years and he pitied her hard life.
That year, Xie Wanyi was twenty-four. She had been married to Zhao Huaijin for ten years.
For ten years, she had been his wife and had exhausted herself day and night for his sake. She had endured a difficult labor during wartime, nearly died, and lost the ability to bear more children. Their only child had also gone missing.
In the end, all she received was his pity.
From that day on, the fourteen-year-old Xie Wanyi was buried forever within the palace walls. The one who lived on was an empress as cold as a jade statue.
She watched consort after consort enter the palace, watched Zhao Huaijin have child after child, and played the part of the most virtuous and benevolent empress.
Not even the most demanding historian or the harshest remonstrating official could find fault with her.
Another ten years passed. The frontier was in turmoil, Zhao Huaijin personally led an expedition to war, and Xie Wanyi fell gravely ill, close to death.
The palace walls, deep and high, had locked away every joy and sorrow of her life.
At the moment her lamp was about to go out, Xie Wanyi felt only relief.
She thought, If there is another life, I must find a man who sees only me. I will never marry Zhao Huaijin again. I will never be empress again...
*
She died too soon to see him travel a thousand miles through the winter cold, his clothes stained with blood, just to see her one last time.
Nor did she know that Zhao Huaijin would later give up the brilliant path of an emperor and beg for another life with her...
Theme: Often, people love deeply without realizing it, and only understand after it's too late. May we all have the chance to make up for our regrets
Lady Hui
After Toying with the Hostage, He Ascended the Throne
He Is Not Her Husband
A Story of Taking Someone by Force
The Heir Regrets It Too Late
The BE Empress and Emperor Are Reborn
A Broken Branch
The New Emperor Regrets It Too Late
Carved Jade
The Golden Branch in Chains
Calamity
The Two Swallows Return
I feel like the focus is off! It's not that the male protagonist can't protect the female protagonist at all, it's that he humiliates Linglong again and again by demoting his wife as a concubine. There is no crematorium at all. Or is it because the male protagonist has no remorse, so there is no need for a crematorium?
All I can say is that it's almost over. I don't see where the male protagonist will be in the crematorium, especially compared to the early stage when the female protagonist was tortured. If it were to end like this. . . All I can say is copywriting fraud.
Zhen Jue, I am pregnant now, I am so lonely in the crematorium, can I turn around and run with the ball?
Ahhhhh, the author should change the male protagonist!!! She deserves normal love!!! I'm so angry, spending money makes me feel bad! Return to the crematorium, if this can help, Jinjiang will refund the money!!!
I met a young heroine in my forties. Is this age difference going to make it worth it?
This male protagonist doesn't deserve Linglong's love even in his rebirth. If I change him to a male protagonist, it won't work. He's too abusive to the female protagonist. Now that I see it, I'm abusing the female protagonist throughout the whole story.
I haven't tortured the male protagonist yet! The heroine is pregnant... Where is the crematorium?
Reading this book is really a bit tiring... And it's not just the plot that drags on. I don't know since when, the author began to like rhetorical psychological descriptions... There are many rhetorical questions repeated about one thing, such as "Is she sad? How can she not be sad? That's ××××" (not the original text, but there is a lot of psychological descriptions like this in the original text). The author's writing rhythm has always been good before, but I feel really tired recently. I feel like the author is racking his brains to get the word count (I'm not saying that the author means to make up for the word count, but I just feel that the author doesn't know how to push the plot). Maybe the author is also tired recently. Anyway, good luck with your work.
Really pregnant? You won't be guessed by me, will you reconcile with the male protagonist for the sake of the child? Or should we separate from the male protagonist and let the second male lead take advantage of him and raise the child???
It feels like it's going to be unfinished. The plot behind it is all messed up and there's no content.