After Taking In an Injured Shadow Guard

Undergoing a major revision. Transitions between chapters may be uneven. One chapter will be revised each day or every other day.

Ever since the death of the imperial brother who raised him, Xiao Hengshu has been effectively confined to the capital.

To scrape by under the emperor's rule, he has done his best to adapt to a life as stagnant as a pool of still water, and to forget the carefree days he spent on the frontier.

Xiao Hengshu has only one wish left: to hold on until his imperial father dies and the crown prince ascends the throne. Then, relying on the crown prince's trust in him, he can become an idle prince and live out the rest of his life in peace.

But even this modest wish is destined to be difficult to achieve.

After his compassion got the better of him and he risked punishment to plead with the emperor for the life of a shadow guard forced to kneel in the snow, his seemingly peaceful life became impossible to maintain.

The bloody events of eight years ago have been dragged back into the open. He has no choice but to face an increasingly brutal reality and take part in the struggle for the supreme throne.

* Strong x strong, 1v1, happy ending

* Gentle, considerate gong x resilient, unyielding shou

* A loosely constructed alternate history. No need for in-depth historical research.

* Please be kind to one another. No personal attacks.

Coming next: A groveling romance. Please add to your collection:

After the Scumbag Gong Awakens at the Crematorium, He Gets a Happy Ending with the Cannon-Fodder Shou

The year they fought on a barren planet, Xie Xian rescued someone from the ruins of an artillery strike.

Later, that person replaced him as the emperor's trusted confidant.

To be honest, Xie Xian couldn't understand why one act of kindness had sent his life into a tailspin.

The emperor who trusted him stripped him of his military command. Friends who had once fought beside him called him a traitor to the nation. Endless humiliation and suspicion weighed on him until he could barely breathe.

He couldn't make sense of any of it, so he stopped trying. After one more bout of despair, Xie Xian decided to leave the empire he had poured his heart and soul into.

Until one day, the emperor came to him and said he wanted to continue the work they had left unfinished.

With an iron fist, Chu Xun rebuilt the interstellar empire at a young age.

He was decisive and ruthless with others, but in private he was too much of a coward to even confess his feelings.

He loved Xie Xian, but Xie Xian had devoted himself entirely to the empire. He saw Chu Xun only as a comrade-in-arms and a friend, though not a particularly close one.

But that was all right. Chu Xun knew that love could not be forced. As long as Xie Xian stayed by his side, he had nothing to complain about.

Until their peaceful days were abruptly shattered. Chu Xun lost control of himself, and all the love he had once felt turned into intense hatred.

When he finally came to his senses, Chu Xun realized that they were living in a book. He was the male lead gong in an interstellar groveling-romance novel, while Xie Xian was the villain: obsessed with him, trying to kill the protagonist, and ultimately exiled to a remote star system, where he died with regrets. As for the pitiful protagonist shou, he was the man Xie Xian had rescued.

When Chu Xun realized the story had reached the groveling stage, and that he was doting on the protagonist shou while constantly humiliating Xie Xian with face-slapping, his vision went black. He could hardly keep from dropping to his knees and begging forgiveness.

Was it still in time for him to apologize?

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Emperor gong x commander shou

Strong x strong, 1v1, happy ending

A tragic romance dressed in interstellar trappings, with an old-school groveling plot and a running-away arc

An entirely fictional setting, with lots of authorial inventions. Please don't read too much into it.

Theme: Only when winter comes do we learn that the pine and cypress are the last to shed their leaves.