The White Moonlight's "Replacement" and the White Moonlight

Blurb:

When the Crown Prince’s residence hosts a banquet, Jiang Shu attends and catches the Crown Prince’s eye. Determined to have her, he takes her by force, threatening the lives of everyone in the Jiang family to make her submit.

With no other choice, Jiang Shu pleads with her fiancé for help. But he is a coward who fears trouble. He not only refuses to help, but watches helplessly as someone drugs her and sends her to the Crown Prince’s bed.

Unable to bear the humiliation, Jiang Shu smashes her head against something and dies.

Three years after her death, both the Crown Prince and her cowardly fiancé are killed by Prince Wei, Li Zhao.

*

Prince Wei, Li Zhao, was an unloved imperial son. After enduring humiliation and lying low for ten years, he ascended the throne and ruled with ruthless decisiveness. No one in the realm failed to fear him.

Yet less than seven years after taking the throne, Li Zhao died young, leaving no children behind.

It was said that Li Zhao had a white moonlight who died young. After becoming emperor, he posthumously made her empress and spent his days staring blankly at her portrait. He took no other consorts, and ultimately wasted away from grief and died.

While Jiang Shu’s spirit wandered the palace, she once saw a portrait of Li Zhao’s white moonlight. The woman’s features looked remarkably like hers.

*

Reborn, Jiang Shu ends up clinging to Li Zhao for protection through a series of unfortunate coincidences.

Remembering how much she resembles his white moonlight who died young, she boldly reaches up with both arms and loops them around his neck. “Shu’er has long admired Your Highness. If you can protect Shu’er this time, Shu’er is willing to become your concubine.”

Jiang Shu thinks being Li Zhao’s concubine has to be better than dying a horrible death in the Eastern Palace. And since Li Zhao is so devoted to his white moonlight, he surely won’t touch her. Then maybe she can eventually get away unscathed and be free to go wherever she pleases.

But Li Zhao, his face flushed by her embrace, puts an arm around her waist and breathes warmly into her ear. “Why be a concubine? I want you as my princess consort, my one and only wife.”

[A story about a white moonlight who mistakes herself for a stand-in]

Reading guide:

1. Fictional setting, very fictional;

2. Both the male and female leads are reborn;

3. The female lead believes she is the white moonlight’s stand-in throughout the first part of the story.

Theme: Believe in love and pursue it bravely