The Emperor's Old Flame Has Reignited

He Huai is the granddaughter of the Empress Dowager’s former close friend. She is specially brought into the palace to meet Prince Ning. She assumes becoming his princess consort is all but certain, until one day at a banquet, Prince Ning rejects the match with her in front of the Empress Dowager, humiliating her. Afterward, He Huai confronts Prince Ning with red-rimmed eyes. If he has no intention of marrying her, why did he hold her in his arms the other night? But he looks at her as if she were insane and denies everything. “You’ve been dreaming about becoming a princess consort so much that you’ve gone delusional, haven’t you?” He refuses to admit it. She thinks he’s lying, but when she makes inquiries, she discovers that Prince Ning really did not leave his bedchamber that night. He Huai is baffled. If so, then who is the man who meets her every month at night and held her in his arms just a few days ago? * The Emperor encounters a young woman one night. She is dull, mercenary, and boring, completely out of place in the palace. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he takes a liking to her, until the Empress Dowager tells him She is the woman chosen for his son. * Prince Ning dislikes He Huai, but the Empress Dowager and the Emperor treat her well, as if they have already decided she will be the future Princess Consort of Ning. The Emperor, in particular, breaks protocol for her several times. Prince Ning assumes it is only because the Emperor wishes to honor the Empress Dowager. To win the Emperor’s favor, Prince Ning considers one candidate after another, but in the end, he settles on Shen Hehui. He goes to her room and informs her from behind a folding screen: “I’ve spoken to Grandmother. Once the match is formally approved, our marriage will be settled for good. After we wed, you’ll have to put away those country ways of yours. Don’t embarrass me, understand?” There is a rustle from inside, but no answer. Prince Ning walks around the screen and enters. “Have you gone mute?” Before he can finish speaking, he freezes. He Huai is wearing only her underclothes, the collar loose and a red plum blossom visible near her collarbone. In a panic, she is trying to cover herself with the bedding. At her waist, a bright yellow handkerchief sways, its coiled dragon pattern unmistakable. It is an item only his father, the Emperor of Great Zhou, is allowed to use. #The Emperor is thirty-four, and an old flame catches fire again: a powerful man humbly begging for love #The heroine and Prince Ning are not in a confirmed relationship and have no feelings for each other. The ongoing novel The Third Year in His Care is being updated on my profile. Please add it to your favorites: In the third year Qiaorong spends in Lu Zhu’s care, she realizes she has developed feelings for him. At the same time, Lu Zhu realizes what is happening. After finding the nightclothes she had hidden in her boudoir and shamelessly toyed with, he spends the whole night awake and finally decides, to marry her off. Desperate to avoid marriage, Qiaorong tries everything, but Lu Zhu effortlessly foils every one of her schemes. In the end, to put a stop to her hopes once and for all, he announces a decision no one could have expected: he will adopt her as his daughter. With nowhere left to retreat, the day before the adoption ceremony, Qiaorong takes out the pill she has kept hidden for so long. Later, she sees the deep, bloody whip marks across his back. At last, her heart turns to ashes. * Years later, Qiaorong returns to the Lu family to visit with her husband. Seeing Lu Zhu again and remembering the foolish things she did when she was young, she feels as if a lifetime has passed. She has built the ordinary, happy life he wanted for her and let go of the feelings she once had for him. Over dinner, buoyed by the wine, she raises her cup to him from across the table. “Third Uncle, thank you for raising me all these years. I can never repay you.” Third Uncle? Lu Zhu looks up. Back then, no matter how hard he pushed her, she refused to call him that. Now she says it so easily. Lu Zhu says nothing, simply raising his cup to accept her salute. Seeing this, Qiaorong is relieved. She thinks the past is finally behind them. But soon afterward, on a boat where only her husband should be, she sees Lu Zhu again. He sits quietly and fastens the shackles he had made for her long ago around her ankle. “You grew up by my side, and you did what you did with me. So what am I to you now? Your uncle, your brother, or your lover?” Qiaorong is unmoved. “You were the one who didn’t want me.” “I regret it. So I’m taking back my decision to marry you off.” The flower he raised can only spend its whole life growing in his home. 1. Fifteen-year age gap. The male lead is chaste in both body and heart; an ascetic falls from grace. 2. The heroine was already of age when she came to live with the male lead. They have no legal or blood relationship. 2024/12/8 Theme: Learning to show respect