The Princess and the Hostage

In the sixty-first year of Mingqing, Emperor Zhou dies. Changsun Wei takes her younger brother by the hand and steps into Chenhua Hall, treading over corpses strewn across the ground.

For three years, she serves at the emperor's side. Countless old ministers and members of the new faction die at her hands, but only the Zhan family manages to stay out of the fray. Everyone knows that the eldest princess is capricious and heartless, yet she has shown the Zhan family's legitimate son more patience than anyone else in her life.

Changsun Wei has never hidden her favoritism toward him. She even gives him the waist token that symbolizes her status as a princess. She thinks he must feel something for her, at least a little. But only when Zhan Xu leaves for the frontier on the day of his wedding, leaving her alone to face the rumors filling the city, does she realize that in the face of power, love is as fleeting as smoke.

To prevent a woman from ruling, the officials of the court insist that she marry again. Unexpectedly, she gently points to a youth by the stables, as lowly as dirt.

Beneath the white jade steps, the horse groom, his clothes flecked with grass, raises his head amid the crowd's jeers. No one sees the jade pendant hidden in his palm, engraved with the horned dragon emblem of the heir to the throne of Wei.

Ten years after her death, Wei Linghuai is reborn on the eve of her wedding to Zhan Xu. The woman's smile is as gentle as ever, yet she is about to dress in phoenix coronets and bridal robes for another man. Just as in his previous life, Wei Linghuai breaks the two of them apart. He thinks it will take many years, as it did before, for him to enter her heart. But this time, she is the one who reaches for his hand first.

She thinks her heart has finally thawed, but it turns out she only wants to use his identity, and still insists on keeping a clear line between them.

On their wedding night, Wei Linghuai can no longer hold back. He grips her wrist and pins her against a red-lacquered pillar. "Your Highness, are you really so eager to make me Zhan Xu's substitute?"

Changsun Wei pauses while undressing and tilts her head. "Then should I leave?" Without another word, Wei Linghuai pulls her into his arms, helps her out of her many layers of finery, and sighs.

Very well.

A marriage in name only is still better than having neither a name nor a marriage with certain people.

The Annals of Minghua of Great Zhou includes a piece of unofficial history that later generations often discuss. It is said that one day, with nothing better to do, a censor impeached the princess's consort, claiming he was uncouth and unworthy of a jade crown.

Unexpectedly, the next morning, the people of the capital saw the eldest princess riding through the streets, with a young man behind her, his hair tied up in a slanted knot and her phoenix hairpin shining brightly in it.

Many years later, Zhan Xu finally understood that there had been nothing special about him back then. Her gaze had only paused on him briefly, but he had imagined that the light came from within him.

P.S. The male lead is reborn. The romance leans toward falling in love after marriage.

Theme: Supporting each other is the way to last