Shattered Jade Can Never Be Mended

★ Key points: This is my first time writing a crematorium-style redemption story, and I went way too hard. It's extremely angsty, so please read with caution. orz

★ A friendly reminder: Check the content warnings below before reading, so the melodramatic plot doesn't catch you off guard.

★ My upcoming novel, "The Girl Disguised as a Man Loses Her Cover in Front of the Chancellor," is listed at the very bottom. If you're interested, please visit my author page and add it to your favorites. Thank you!

Eldest Princess × Great General

Liang Siyin was born dazzlingly beautiful. To keep the young emperor under her thumb, the Empress Dowager ruled from behind the curtain and confined Siyin somewhere out of sight for more than a decade, until she was forcibly sent away to marry for an alliance.

But on the way to Beiyou, Liang Siyin was tricked, replaced, and left for dead. She survived and ended up in the borderlands. After losing her memories, she fell in love with the man who saved her and became his kept woman, willingly accepting that lowly position.

To win Pei Jing's favor, Liang Siyin gave him her whole heart and let him trample all over it. Her love was humble yet fervent, but it could never melt that heart of ice.

While seeking a blessing charm for Pei Jing, Liang Siyin nearly lost her life.

In return, she found him with his beloved at his side, coldly calling her, "An insignificant person."

Later, while confined to a separate residence, Liang Siyin was framed for theft.

Pei Jing brushed aside the hand clutching his black robe and let her blood flow across the ground.

There wasn't the slightest trace of pity in his voice: "Throw water on her to wake her, then carry on."

It wasn't until she watched with her own eyes as the close maid she loved like a sister was silently killed by Pei Jing's sword...

That night, someone set a great fire and burned the Protector General's kept woman to death. Not long afterward, news came from the imperial family: the Eldest Princess, who had been sent to Beiyou for an alliance marriage and had vanished for half a month amid a rebellion in that country, had been sent back by the new emperor of Beiyou, accompanied by his envoys.

Pei Jing finally learned the truth. He knelt beneath the palace steps, letting his blood stain his armor red, begging only for the Eldest Princess to look at him once more.

But the tightly shut palace gates never opened even the slightest crack for him. Instead, news came that the Eldest Princess was to marry the newly appointed top scholar...

*

Pei Jing was cruelly abandoned as a child and had a tragic upbringing.

After decades of clawing his way through piles of corpses, unable to bear seeing the common people suffer, he carved out his own path on the battlefield with his bare hands.

From then on, he rose to high office and was deeply beloved by the people: a steel-boned, spear-and-sword-proof Protector General.

Yet no one could have imagined that a general like him would nearly die for a kept woman of unknown origins, someone he had once mistaken for a spy and nearly cut down.

He passed through the gates of death again and again, and it still wasn't over...

Later, Pei Jing was covered in wounds. He knelt and looked up at her, only for Liang Siyin to grasp his chin with ease. Her gaze cool and distant, she said, "You aren't even worthy of putting shoes on for me."

Content warnings:

1. An alternate historical setting.

2. The male lead does not change, and he has never had a legal wife or been married.

3. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. Happy ending. A crematorium-style redemption story: the heroine suffers first, then the hero.

4. The heroine goes by Bai Yu while she has amnesia. Her personality is very different before and after losing her memories.

5. There is more to the death of the heroine's close maid, and the story explains it.

6. The characters' values do not represent the author's values. Everything serves the plot.

7. The heroine does not look like the emperor, and the hero once suspected that she was a spy.

8. The blurb has been revised to fill in background details from the original. If you have questions about other plot logic, the full story has reasonable explanations.

9. Neither the protagonists nor the supporting characters are perfect. They will grow.

10. Key point: This is not a sweet romance. It really is an extremely angst-filled, over-the-top melodrama that puts the characters through the wringer.

11. I hope you enjoy reading. If it's not for you, please click away and kindly spare me. Thank you.

-- Upcoming: "The Girl Disguised as a Man Loses Her Cover in Front of the Chancellor" --

A cold-faced, straightforward female general × a talkative, frail chancellor

The Xie family's general, Xie Chenmian, has features like a painting and a face as lovely as fine jade. She is a deadly blade in the emperor's hand, and someone the court fears and wants to eliminate.

Now that the realm is at peace, she has only two things to do every day:

One: Keep a cold face and make sure no one discovers she is a woman.

Two: Avoid Chancellor Luo Zixiu, who loves taking advantage of people and lecturing her about what's right.

At a banquet in the palace, Xie Chenmian falls into the schemes of a wicked villain. Her body goes limp and her face flushes red. Just as a palace maid is about to have her way, Xie Chenmian's secret as a woman is on the verge of being exposed.

Unexpectedly, Luo Zixiu, with whom she has long wanted nothing to do, suddenly appears. He knocks out the maid and carries Xie Chenmian away without a word, babbling as he runs: "Brother Chenmian, I told you to read more books. You got what you deserved, getting tricked like this. I know you're grateful, so why not just give me the few horses you keep at your country estate?"

Luo Zixiu is quite pleased with himself and doesn't realize how serious the situation is at all.

Until...

He watches helplessly as the dazed Xie Chenmian tosses one binding cloth after another out of her clothes. Their eyes meet, and he is left shocked, pitiful, and utterly helpless!!!

Just as Luo Zixiu thinks she's about to kill him to keep the secret, Xie Chenmian pins him in a secluded corner. Her threat is unmistakable: "Lord Luo, don't you love clinging to me? Today, you can cling to me to your heart's content."

"Help..."

Now that the truth is out, neither of them gets to run away.

*

Luo Zixiu was born into a poor family and is an orphan.

Since rising to high office, he has grown sick of the sycophants he sees everywhere.

He thinks Xie Chenmian is much like himself, so he wants to befriend her. When officials find new ways to pick on her, Luo Zixiu keeps lecturing her on the principles of life so she'll stay alert. He never expected it to backfire and send her running farther and farther away.

Fortunately, a little accident changes everything.

In the end, his brother becomes his wife. How wonderful!

Theme: Break free of constraints and charge bravely ahead.