The Phoenix Hairpin

[Ongoing: A Concubine's Wretched Fate; Completed: Condensed Light Coming soon: Your Majesty Is Heartless, A Wife Is No Better Than a Concubine, Royal Brother] ★ Radiant beauty x Daoist male lead ★ In their previous life, they were an impoverished couple. He died of an epidemic during wartime, leaving her behind in the mortal world, consumed by regret. She still remembered the night before he died. His face was pale, and only the teardrop mole beneath his eye stood out, vivid red. He clutched her hand tightly and spoke of promises that could no longer be fulfilled, his voice full of sorrow. Less than two years later, carrying a single wish in her heart, she entered the cycle of reincarnation. After drinking a bowl of Granny Meng's soup, she could no longer remember him completely. In this life, Rong Chen is the legitimate eldest daughter of a powerful general who holds sway over the court. At thirteen, she meets the fifteen-year-old Third Prince. The Third Prince has a face as lovely as a painting. Apart from lacking the red teardrop mole beneath his eye, he is otherwise identical to the husband in her hazy memories. She marries him, eliminates his rivals, and clears his path. The Third Prince ascends the throne, and she becomes empress, the mother of all under heaven. But after that, the palace grows deep and secluded, and they drift apart, never to meet again. She doesn't know that someone else already holds his heart. She only finds out when she sees him with the Western Palace's Noble Consort, always together. Later, on a rainy night, he deposes her for the sake of the woman he loves. Rong Chen is confined to the Cold Palace, with no idea how much time passes. The west wind blows cold and desolate. Her fever will not break. Lying in bed and staring at the curtains, she cries until no tears remain, then stares blankly for a long while. She thinks that perhaps she loved the wrong person in this life. In her fevered haze, she seems to hear someone gently call her name, his voice tender, just like in her previous life. It leaves her dazed. Someone softly kisses the tear tracks at the corner of her eye and whispers, "...I found you." Against the light, he removes his mask. In that dreamlike state, she sees the teardrop mole beneath his eye, red as blood. The Fourth Prince's fate is ill-starred. Though he is the twin brother of his elder brother, Emperor Jingling, their destinies could not be more different. His father, the emperor, did not even give him a name before entrusting him to Perfected Changying, who took him to Mount Qi. More than twenty years have passed since he left the capital, and there is not a trace of him in the vast imperial palace. "Fish dive in the deep, or swim among the reeds." His master gave him the Daoist name Xuanyuan. From then on, he traveled the world, holding to the Dao and helping the suffering. He thought he would live just like the others in his sect, healing the sick and helping the world until old age. He never expected to meet Rong Chen on that spring night. His quiet, unremarkable life seemed to take on a hundred different flavors. This is the story of a love-struck woman who comes to her senses and eventually becomes emperor. ☆ Reader's guide: 1. The heroine is a gorgeous, radiant beauty with exceptional martial prowess, adored by everyone and surrounded by admirers. In the end, she becomes emperor. 2. The emperor is not a virgin; the Fourth Prince is; the heroine is not (in the literal, physical sense). 3. The first part focuses on the entanglement between the emperor and the heroine, with intimate scenes. The heroine is love-struck at first, but grows later on. None of the characters are perfect. 4. No need to tell me if you drop the story. 5. The author is sensitive. Feel free to insult the terrible emperor, but I'll delete comments that insult my girl or me! 6. The Fourth Prince is Xuxu's husband from her previous life. The poor guy mistook the wrong person. She ends up with the Fourth Prince. 7. Cover art thanks to: Seventy-Two Silver from Ink-and-Wash Egg White, and Hua Jiu from Joy and Love. Coming soon: The Pheasant Flies at Dawn #Regretful pursuit #Rekindled love #Melodrama# Pei Zhiling died in childbirth in the early winter of the third year of Emperor Yuanguang's reign. She died no more than a consort. She was his first woman. After he ascended the throne, new women continued to enter the palace, and Pei Zhiling could do nothing about it. She was careful and virtuous, thinking that if she couldn't win his heart, becoming empress would be a consolation. That was the only hope she had left. Emperor Yuanguang dismissed it with an indifferent glance and a single sentence: "Zhiling, you've always been considerate of me. Why are you being so unreasonable today?" It was because her father and brothers had all died in battle, leaving her family unable to support him at court. So the position of empress was only a foolish fantasy. Pei Zhiling once had a dream. In it, she saw the usually cold and aloof emperor treating a girl in her teens with extraordinary tenderness, sharing her joys and sorrows, pining for her, and cherishing her in the palm of his hand. He even presented the position of empress, the very thing Pei Zhiling had yearned for, to that girl. When Pei Zhiling woke, tears streamed down her face. The things she had begged for in vain came effortlessly to another girl. In the end, she died in childbirth. As she crossed the Bridge of Helplessness, she looked back and saw Emperor Yuanguang, Ji Mo Xun, chasing her all the way into the underworld. A dozen ghost guards held him down on the other side of the River of Forgetfulness as Emperor Yuanguang, Ji Mo Xun, screamed like a madman, begging her not to drink Granny Meng's soup. But she seemed not to hear him. Calmly, she took the bowl from Granny Meng and drank every last drop, leaving not a trace. She parted from him forever, in life and death. That life was as pale as flowing water, faintly bitter, and left her with no attachments. After gaining a crown prince in the third year of his reign, the emperor dismissed his harem. The empress's seat remained vacant for seventeen years. Countless noble ladies coveted it, but they waited until they had grown old without seeing anyone take the position. Everyone began to think that the emperor was a tree that would never blossom. As the Crown Prince, Ji Mohuang, grew older, they began setting their sights on the position of Crown Princess. Emperor Yuanguang rarely left the palace. At someone's request, the Grand Princess held a flower-viewing banquet and went to great lengths to persuade her imperial brother to attend with his nephew, the Crown Prince. At the banquet, the Grand Princess saw a young woman, the beloved only daughter of Grand Secretary Xue, Miss Xue, who was said to be betrothed to the son of the Grand Marshal. Surprised, she looked toward her imperial brother. Ji Mo Xun's expression, usually as cold as autumn frost and frozen snow, softened with every smile and frown of the girl. His voice was hoarse and low, almost inaudible: "Zhiling." Xue Zhiling thought she must have something wrong with her. She had actually heard the fourteen-year-old Crown Prince standing in front of her, eyes red, call her "Mother." Coming soon: Demoted from Wife to Concubine #Old-school melodrama and angst #Regretful pursuit# 1. Feng Xuanying, the legitimate daughter of the chief minister, had loved Jun Ziyu, the Northern King and the Great Zhou Empire's war god, for years. Jun Ziyu was handsome and beautiful, sinister and alluring. His palace was filled with concubines, and he was a frequent visitor to the pleasure houses. Everyone knew of the Great Zhou war god's victories and his charming, rakish nature, but few knew that Jun Ziyu suffered from a blood-demon affliction. When it flared up, only medicine mixed with the blood of someone of utmost purity and yin could suppress it. Feng Xuanying happened to be such a person. So, when she was seventeen, the emperor issued an edict granting the two of them a marriage. Feng Xuanying married the man she had loved for years, believing that one day they would live in harmony. But on their wedding night, he lifted her chin with his long fingers and sneered, "Feng Xuanying, be a good girl and serve as my medicinal ingredient. Don't entertain any foolish fantasies." She conceived his child that night. She kept a low profile and hid her brilliance, hoping that having the first child in the prince's household would make him look upon her differently. Four months later, in the middle of the night, Jun Ziyu, who had never visited her before, unexpectedly entered her courtyard. Overjoyed, she was soon disappointed. He had only brought her a bowl of abortifacient and coldly seized her. No matter how she humbled herself and begged, he only glanced at her coldly: "Drink it yourself, or I'll make you drink it." She was of a frigid, yin nature and had always been in poor health. A miscarriage would likely cost her life. He remained unmoved. Feng Xuanying stared blankly, thinking that she had only ever wanted him to live well. But he... had never cared about her, and had never treated her as his wife. After that night, the princess consort was sent to a villa on South Mountain to recuperate in seclusion. He simply didn't know that everything she had said was true: The child was gone. The princess consort had returned to the heavens of eternal sorrow. 2. After returning to life in another body, she schemed her way from being the Northern King's confidante to his concubine, and then from his concubine to the apple of his eye. Then, one day, on a night when he held her as they slept, the crescent moon shone brightly through the window. She studied the handsome, peaceful face of the man, drowsy with drink. After a long silence, she drew a sharp dagger and plunged it into his heart. The man opened his beautiful, piercing eyes, filled with disbelief and profound sorrow. 3. Feng Xuanying has become the current dynasty's female chancellor, taking over her father's work and dedicating herself to the country and its people. Word has it that she will soon be married. On a painted bridge lined with willows, she "accidentally" meets someone from her past. Feng Xuanying gives him a cool glance, pretends not to know him, and walks past. The man in black grabs her wrist. She stops, pulls her hand away, and says, "Your Highness, please behave with dignity." "...A Ying, who are you marrying?" Theme: Never bow to hardship