The Moonlit Mistake

Historical records say that Beigong Yue, the personal lady-in-waiting to Empress Tianqi, was well versed in literature and skilled in administration. She once drafted an imperial edict on the empress's behalf and was adept at wielding power. In the first year of Mingde, Emperor Yuanqi launched a coup and was killed by the rebel army.

The world said she was a heroine born in troubled times, doomed by an unjust fate.

Only Beigong Yue knew that her life of tragedy began with one mistake: the day she brought Yuan Shen back from the Office of Crimes.

That year, she was twenty. The empress had entrusted her with handling memorials from every ministry and taking part in government decisions. She was at the height of her power.

He was sixteen. His father had been convicted of a crime, and his whole family was imprisoned. He was a convict who had nearly been taken away to fight in the beast arena.

Their fateful meeting was the worst mistake of her life.

For the next ten years, she loved him in a vile, despicable way.

She kept him imprisoned by day, crushing the ambitions of his youth.

She broke his legs and shattered his dream of becoming a soldier.

Ten years later, she was thirty.

Rebel troops poured through Xuanwu Gate, bringing an end to thirty years of flourishing glory.

In the back courtyard, he took her life with a dagger, then killed himself.

When she opened her eyes, she was back at the age of twenty.

Looking at the boy in the Office of Crimes, she felt weighed down by guilt.

She rescued him, cared for him, and resolved to repay everything she owed him from her past life.

Ten years later, the boy had become the great general he had always wanted to be,

and she had found a good man and was living in harmony with him.

But on the night of her wedding banquet, the young man led troops in to ruin the celebration. He held her fiance's life hostage, forcing her to drink the wedding wine with him.

Beneath the swaying red candles, he cornered her in a secluded spot and kissed her like a madman.

She was terrified, but then the young man's thin lips curled up. In a hoarse voice, he said, "Last life, didn't you love kissing me like this, Sister? Why the change in taste? Never mind. Whatever kind of man you like, Sister, I can learn to be."

Theme: Love yourself before loving someone else.