Zhou Hua is Xie Zhong's wife, and an orphan who has lost her memory. All she remembers is Xie Zhong's indistinct face.
In the eyes of others, she is Xie Zhong's weakness, a helpless woman who couldn't hurt a fly, and an easy target. Along the way, Zhou Hua has taken blades and poison for him, and done everything in her power to keep him safe.
She stayed by Xie Zhong's side as he lay low and raised an army. At last, they fought their way back to the capital and restored the Jin Dynasty. To Zhou Hua, they were a couple who had weathered hardships together and supported one another through thick and thin.
But on the day Xie Zhong ascended the throne, the decree Zhou Hua received was one appointing her as a consort. Only then did she learn that, in Xie Zhong's eyes, the place of empress had never been meant for her.
She was merely a substitute, someone who bore a passing resemblance to a Jiang family girl Xie Zhong had loved for years. She was there to soothe his longing for that woman and to serve as bait in her place.
Even her child was promised to the Jiang girl to raise.
Remembering all those years of whispered endearments and solemn vows, Zhou Hua's heart turned to ash.
She tried to leave, but was imprisoned in Zhaohua Palace, growing thinner by the day.
"Huahua, you can only stay by my side." The young emperor, mad with grief and eyes reddened, could only threaten her with words that carried no weight.
Because she no longer cared about anything.
*
The icy lake water sealed Zhou Hua's mouth and nose. As she began to suffocate, all her buried memories came rushing back.
It turned out the face in her memories had never been Xie Zhong's.
Zhou Hua no longer wanted to die. She wanted to live. She wanted to leave this place.
In the second year of Chongde in the Great Jin, Noble Consort Zhou died of illness in Zhaohua Palace. The emperor and consort had shared a deep love, so she was buried with the rites of an empress.
It was said among the people that the emperor's hair turned white overnight.
Years later, Xie Zhong saw Zhou Hua standing before him, with a face eight parts like his own, and went deathly pale.
So I was the real substitute all along.
Reader advisory:
1. The male lead will chase his wife to the crematorium, but this broken mirror will not be mended. The male lead will be reduced to ashes.
2. The female lead is the only one for both the male lead and the second male lead.
3. Includes a little bit of a coercive romance trope.
Theme: Never give up on yourself, no matter what.
