In the twenty-seventh year of Tianming, the heavens shifted.
Princess Xu Mu dragged the powerful chancellor Bai Cangzhou from the palace to the city wall and told him to open his damn eyes and look at the blazing flames of Xudu, and the Wu tribes’ iron hooves.
That day, they fell from the wall together and died as the city was breached and their kingdom fell.
When Xu Mu woke again, she discovered she had been reborn at the age of fourteen.
The moment she awoke, assassins were after her.
A young man in plain clothes saved her. That single act revealed to Xu Mu the secret palace power struggles she had been caught up in during her youth, and made her realize just how obvious her little feelings had been in her previous life.
But seventeen-year-old Bai Cangzhou already had a fiancée of his own.
As Xu Mu scoffed at herself for repeating the same mistakes, she came across the man who had made her endure five years of a living widowhood in her previous life.
She fled in a panic, and gazing at the dark river, found herself thinking of death.
Bai Cangzhou rushed over and grabbed her, scolding, “What is it that Your Highness can’t get over, even after two lifetimes?”
Xu Mu froze for a moment, then shoved him to the ground. “So you were reborn too. Was it fun watching me act like an idiot?”
After a long talk, they agreed on one thing: they had to go back.
She would seize the throne and defy fate, extending Dongling’s rule by another three hundred years!
But every courtier and palace consort was a master schemer. How could she learn to take command of the board?
During the three years she lay low, she watched them fight for power and learned all their plots and schemes.
When she saw Bai Cangzhou again three years later, she put those lessons to use, setting a trap that brought them together for a night of warmth and tenderness. Afterwards, she denied everything.
Bai Cangzhou regretted it. Three years ago, he should never have used her to set that trap and let her hate him for so long.
*
After being reborn:
Xu Mu is 14, Bai Cangzhou is 17.
Xu Mu: Bai Cangzhou, saving me won’t cost you anything.
Bai Cangzhou: ???
Xu Mu: Aren’t you too poor to pay for the imperial examinations? I’m a princess. I’m loaded.
Bai Cangzhou: …
That same year, Bai Cangzhou came first in the imperial examinations.
*
Three years later
Xu Mu is 17, Bai Cangzhou is 20.
Bai Cangzhou: Your Highness, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have schemed against you like that.
Xu Mu: ???
Bai Cangzhou: If I can stay by Your Highness’s side, I’m willing to be your kept man.
Xu Mu: …
That same year, they joined hands to turn Dongling’s fate around.
*
Reader’s Guide
1. Before being reborn, the heroine was not a virgin, while the hero was. Readers who prefer both leads to be virgins, please take note.
The heroine has a crush on him at first and pursues him. In the middle, he pursues her, in a partial redemption arc, while they scheme to save the kingdom. In the end, she turns the tables and reverses Dongling’s doomed fate.
2. Ensemble cast, political scheming mixed with romance. There are a second and third male lead, with all three competing for the heroine.
(The hero pursues her in a redemption arc; the second male lead tries to force her into a relationship; the third is the sort who truly suffers for love but never wins her over.)
3. Part of the Dongling Empire series, also known as The Power to Rule the Realm 3. It takes place three hundred years after Dongling was founded.
4. By this point, the Dongling Empire has already begun to decline from its peak. The heroine is reborn and forcibly gives the empire a new lease on life.
5. The whole novel is complete and will update daily without interruption.
6. Love you all, mwah!
Theme: There is endless joy in challenging fate
