Clouds Delicate, Rain Shy

[Physical copies go on pre-sale at 8:00 p.m. on March 28, 2026] Jiang Ling was terrified of Bu Zhan. He was ruthless, deceitful, selfish, arrogant, and would stop at nothing for power. He was a notorious treacherous minister. One moment, he was accepting the imperial marriage decree with all due reverence in front of everyone. The next, he had imprisoned the emperor in Changming Hall. In public, Bu Zhan would slip an arm around her waist, tuck a begonia blossom into her hair, and tenderly call her his wife. In private, he never showed her the slightest tenderness in their chambers. Even on the day she was due to give birth, he was away attending to state affairs. That night, rain poured down. Jiang Ling lay on the bed, covered in blood, and vaguely heard someone rush in and shout: "The Chancellor says to save the child, even if we have to sacrifice the mother! The child must be saved!" Her hands and feet went ice-cold. Fortunately, Jiang Ling was lucky enough to survive. Heaven had spared her. * In the fourteenth year of the Daxuan era, Bu Zhan seized the throne and became emperor. That very night, he had her confined in Cangchun Palace. She heard from the palace servants that Bu Zhan had raised their child well. He was sensible, well-read, brave, and resourceful. Unlike his father, he was not an emotionless monster. When the young prince held a knife to Bu Zhan's throat and demanded his mother, Bu Zhan said only one thing: "Remember this: your mother is dead. A ruler must learn to be heartless." In the fourth year of the Mingyi era, after failing to escape from the palace, Jiang Ling set fire to the curtains beside her bed with her own hands. When the news reached Changming Hall, Bu Zhan's hand paused as he held his brush. A moment later, he said coolly, "Then bury her." That night, every peach blossom in the imperial palace withered. * On the night Jiang Ling died, Bu Zhan sat alone in Changming Hall until morning. When the first ray of dawn fell on the man's imperial robes, he suddenly felt as if a piece of his heart had gone missing. In the first half of his life, he betrayed his lord, seized the emperor to command the feudal lords, and committed every imaginable evil. In the second half, he spent the long years he had left lost in remorse and longing that cut him to the heart. * The heroine fakes her death. The hero gets a top-tier groveling arc. * The powerful man lowers his head; the conqueror turns tender. * I want to write about a warlord hero in troubled times. At first, he truly has no heart and cares only about power. One-on-one romance, both leads' first time, happy ending. (The blurb contains a misunderstanding caused by a difference in perspective.) Pre-release of a similar novel, "Through the Plum Blossoms of Spring" . Wei Qiang knew that the person Song Che hated most was her. They had been childhood sweethearts, but after someone else plotted against them, she had no choice but to send Song Che to his death with a cup of poisoned wine. But she never expected him to survive. In the fifteenth year of the Jinming era, Song Che raised an army outside the city. On the day the city gates fell, the first thing he did was go to the Wei residence and take her virginity. That night, the candle flame flickered low. Her face was streaked with tears, and the man's voice beside her was full of hatred: "Wei Qiang, this is what you owe me." "Remember, from this moment on, I want you to live in hell and beg for death every day and night." Wei Qiang watched him seize the throne and become emperor. She watched the boy who had once followed her everywhere, his eyes filled with love for her, turn into a cold and heartless ruler. Song Che imprisoned her in the palace and tormented her day and night, yet made her live as the lowliest palace servant. So the pampered young lady gradually learned to wash clothes and start fires, and to read people's moods. In the second year of the Jin Xuan era, the emperor and empress were wed. Song Che specifically ordered her to attend and pour the wedding wine. Beside him sat the daughter of the current chancellor, her features gentle and refined. With her eyes lowered, Wei Qiang stepped forward, but in a moment of carelessness, she knocked over the wine jar. Wei Qiang knelt there in helpless disarray, watching the emperor in his wedding robes rise with a dark expression. He grabbed her chin with a cold face. Just as he had that year, he forced the searing liquor down Wei Qiang's throat. Song Che watched coldly as she choked and collapsed. Disheveled and humiliated, Wei Qiang retched on the ground. After a long while, she coughed up a mouthful of blood. The wine was poisoned. She slumped in Song Che's arms, watching his expression grow increasingly frantic as her voice weakened. "I once served Your Majesty a cup of poisoned wine. Now... Your Majesty has given me one in return." "From this day on, Your Majesty and I are even." Heavy snow fell as wedding celebrations filled the skies. A layer of frost settled on the emperor's trembling lashes. - Song Che had thought his heart was long dead. It had died on the night his young love forced him to drink poison, yet it began beating again in the depths of this crimson winter. From then on, every day, he lived in hell, his heart aching as if he were dying. The night wind blew through. The sins he had committed could never be erased, in this life or the next. 1. The heroine fakes her death, and the hero has to grovel to win her back. 2. Both leads' first time, one-on-one romance, happy ending. The harem is in name only. Theme: Women should be independent and strong.