Little Empress

[This will be revised again! The story may change to an ancient setting with a modern person transmigrating into it, but the overall plot framework will stay the same!]

To bring good luck to the Son of Heaven, Fei Zhenzhen was sent into the imperial harem. She became Lady Fei, awaiting formal investiture and an auspicious day to be appointed Virtuous Consort.

Once inside the palace, her position was awkward. Her residence was separated by just one wall from Qingsi Hall, where the Ninth Prince was under house arrest.

Ninth Prince Wei Lang was born of humble origins. He was temperamental, sinister, and unpredictable. He had once thrown an infant princess into a lake and nearly burned to death the concubine who had raised him. He was a demon everyone avoided, for even a touch could mean death.

When Fei Zhenzhen first met Wei Lang, she saw him standing alone in the falling snow, dressed in thin clothes.

She feared his cruelty, but couldn't bear to see him cold and lonely, so she timidly offered him her hand warmer.

Ten years of icy hardship, and then spring arrived in a single morning.

*

For seventeen years, Wei Lang had walked along the edge of a blade every day. His kind birth mother had been forced to part from him. His adoptive mother treated him like garbage, beating and berating him as she pleased. The emperor plotted at every turn to strip away the last vestiges of his humanity.

The vast imperial palace was a living hell. To survive, Wei Lang grew fangs and claws, and wrapped his heart in layers of hatred.

Wei Lang could withstand almost any hostility, but he couldn't resist Fei Zhenzhen's kindness and courage.

He had already become a demon, but she brought him back to the human world with her own hands.

*

"They say you're a man-eating hound, that your fangs will gnaw at my bones and blood, and your claws will cut into my flesh. But when I look at you, all I see is a body covered in wounds."

"So I walked up to you, touched you, and held you. They were all lying. You never let out a single growl or bark like a vicious hound. I heard you say, and all I heard you say was..."

"'Save me.'"

*

Reader's Guide:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's only partners, happy ending, healing and growing together. The heroine is optimistic, sweet, cute, and a little silly. The hero is a beautiful, tragic, fierce wolfdog, obsessive and sinister.

2. The hero is confined at the beginning, for reasons that will be revealed. He will be released later.

3. To be clear: the heroine never truly marries the old emperor. She is only temporarily sent into the harem, and her status is somewhere between a consort and a palace maid.

4. The heroine won't suffer. The hero isn't a yandere. Most people in the palace are unstable, almost everyone is evil, and the old emperor is a genuine pervert.

5. The cover is a commissioned illustration of Zhenzhen and Little Ninth as a couple. Please don't save it or take screenshots to use privately. Thank you!

[Synopsis captured on December 20, 2021]

Theme: Anyone can become a light for someone else.