Stealing the Beauty (Reborn)

[Main Story Complete] The author's first historical romance. Corrections are welcome.

Blurbs for the upcoming works "I Toyed with the Enemy Emperor, Then Dumped Him" and "My Five Wicked Disciples Have All Gone Mad for Me" are below.

This story: The second male lead (Pei) takes the throne of her heart, plus a groveling redemption arc.

Gan Tang always knew that her elder sister had planted her in her brother-in-law's household to secure his favor.

And so she spent five years like a caged bird. But when her brother-in-law ascended the throne and made her a consort, she thought her good days had finally come.

At the height of her favor, however, the ministers petitioned for her execution.

Only as she lay dying did Gan Tang learn that she had been a scapegoat all along.

When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the days when she was still in the Eastern Palace.

Inside the red walls stood the Crown Princess, who had brought people to kill her.

Outside, Pei Lianzhi, a powerful court official who could sway the court and meddle in state affairs, rode past in purple robes.

Gan Tang gritted her teeth atop the wall, adjusted the pearl flower in her hair, and decided to risk everything. She leaped from the high wall, betting on the powerful minister's capacity for compassion.

But as she fell, she suddenly remembered that a woman had once tried to seduce Pei Lianzhi, only to have her hands and feet cut off.

She cursed her miscalculation and braced for a fatal fall, but the man caught her in his arms.

Pei Lianzhi's eyes brimmed with ferocity. "Since you don't want to live, Lady Liangdi, I'll help you along."

Gan Tang's teeth chattered. She was trying to guess how many of her limbs he would cut off when she realized that this powerful minister had wrapped her in his cloak.

*

By day, Gan Tang was the Eastern Palace's favored concubine.

By night, the powerful minister tugged off her silk stockings and called her by her childhood name, his voice low and tender.

*

At first, Pei Lianzhi scoffed. "She's nothing but a caged bird."

Later, beneath the city walls, amid an army of thousands, the new emperor clutched her sleeve, his eyes bloodshot. "Gan Tang, I offer you the empress's throne. Stay!"

She smiled sweetly and asked him amid the clash of swords, "Lord Pei, do you still dare get entangled with me?"

In the corner of her eye, hidden in the darkness, countless arrows stood ready.

Pei Lianzhi did not hesitate. He cut off the sleeve the emperor was holding.

That way, he could take both the cage and the bird.

From then on, he would hear her sing every night.

A sweet, cunning beauty x a cool, restrained, seemingly gentle man with a dark side.

Content warnings:

1. In her previous life, the heroine was not a virgin; in this life, she is. The male lead is Pei Lianzhi. The characters have their own stories; they do not exist solely for bedroom scenes.

2. The Crown Prince gets a groveling redemption arc, but the broken relationship will not be mended. In this life, he and the heroine are husband and concubine in name only.

3. Set in an imaginary world.

4. This story contains melodramatic, old-school tropes. If you don't like them, don't force yourself to read. Let's all be happy!

Upcoming work: "I Toyed with the Enemy Emperor, Then Dumped Him"

In her previous life, Xu Fuyu was a princess, yet bore countless shackles.

She was pushed into the water and nearly drowned. Her husband kept a mistress. Everyone urged her to be tolerant, generous, virtuous, and proper.

Only when the enemy's cavalry breached the capital did those shackles finally break.

Reborn with knowledge of how things would end, Xu Fuyu declared, "To hell with virtue and propriety! From now on, I'll be the only one who wrongs the world!"

Anyone who tried to lecture her got slapped. Someone tried to push her into the water, so she pushed them into the lake instead. She personally had her husband's mistress bound and sent from his private residence to a country estate.

One day, riding drunk, she spotted a young man playing the zither in the street. His music was like a cascade of pearls, and his face was flawless and beautiful.

Most importantly, he looked like the unattainable first love she held dear.

So Xu Fuyu spent a fortune and held a sword to his throat, forcing him to become her mistress.

It was best to enjoy life while she could.

At first, Xu Fuyu was only playing along. But with tender eyes, he wove a net of affection, hoping to trap her inside it.

A princess who had plunged into the sea of romance had no interest in men. She ran away at once!

After tossing divorce papers in her husband's face, she made the most of her days, carousing every night.

Her private residence was burned to the ground, with no survivors.

Gazing at the flames shooting into the sky, she assumed this fleeting romance had ended.

*

When the enemy's new emperor personally led his troops into battle, everyone knew they were doomed to die.

Xu Fuyu picked up the fallen battle flag and draped it over herself, ready to die for her country.

Behind the emperor's crown, his gaze was sharp and intimidating.

She suddenly realized that the man before her had the exact same face as her dead mistress!

The new emperor stepped down from his carriage and approached her, one step at a time.

The ministers of the fallen dynasty knelt in succession. "The princess is a paragon of chastity. I would gladly give my life to save hers!"

But the new emperor walked past him and crouched before Xu Fuyu.

He brushed the caked mud and blood from the battle flag draped over her and spoke hoarsely:

"Sister, can you take me back to your residence now?"

#It was only supposed to be a fling. Why does my stand-in want a real relationship?!

1. Both leads are virgins.

2. The heroine is no traditional self-sacrificing saint.

Theme: Life is precious, love is more precious still. But for freedom, both can be cast aside.