The Scepter of Power

This novel will enter the locked-chapter period on Friday, June 2. Chapters 33 through 199 will become paid chapters. If you've already read them, please don't buy them again. Thank you for all your support, and please keep supporting me in the future~

Su Murong was named Crown Princess at birth. The Crown Prince was assigned a consort before he even had a wife, an unprecedented first throughout history.

With the emperor on his deathbed and the Crown Prince's position still undecided, surely more than two or three people were burning with anxiety?

But...

Su Murong sat before the desk, looking at the dashing, refined man. In a soft voice, she asked, "Once you enter the palace gates, they become as deep as the sea; from then on, Xiao Lang is but a stranger. Young General Gu, would you take me away?"

Gu Shaoqing was silent for a long time before asking, "Do you know that the sons of the Gu family are forbidden from marrying noblewomen, lest their merits become a threat to the throne? And women of the Su family must not marry outside the palace, or they will be charged with treason."

That was a tactful refusal.

But later, when the new emperor ascended the throne and was about to appoint his empress, Gu Shaoqing, far away in Yunzhou, sent her an urgent letter. He asked: The emperor is unmarried, and you are unwed. He would offer for her with the promise of a lifetime together, and marry no one but her. Would she be willing to leave with him?

Su Murong's expression remained calm as she sent back seven words: "I may be unwed, but not for long."

Later still, Gu Shaoqing looked at her with a face as cold as water. "If you give me mulberry branches, I'll repay you with peach and plum blossoms. I said I would marry no one but you. You ought to have answered, 'I will marry no one but you.'"

The following is the blurb for the next novel, The Jianghu Girl:

"Uncle Hao, Uncle Hao!" A child of seven or eight, dressed in a short jacket and trousers, squeezed in, holding up a letter. "Did Sister Yuehan run away from home?"

The young woman had left a letter saying she wanted to see the solitary smoke over the desert north, the sunset over the long river, the snowy mountains of the Western Regions and their blooming snow lotuses, the Miao people's poison arts of the southern border, and the corpse-driving rites of western Hunan... So she took the money she'd saved from New Year gifts over the years, along with all sorts of treasures, and ran away from home.

·

On a wild country road, a lone rider approached at an easy pace, leisurely guiding a donkey along by the reins.

"A little girl runs from her wedding, takes her donkey and heads out to roam. She fears no wolves in pursuit, nor the bandits who might attack. What she fears is her husband's family making her bow her head and call them Father and Mother..." Hao Yuehan hummed, eyes half closed as she ambled along.

"Heh, once I'm out of Muzhou, with the sky so high and the waters so wide, let's see who can force me to marry!"

Theme: Life never goes smoothly. All we can do is hack through the brambles and ride the wind and waves.