Autumn Beneath the Pillow Mat

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Gu Yuanqiu's closest family were murdered by villains. After enduring countless hardships, she has now risen to become the heir apparent's consort.

Others fawn over Yan Wei, hoping to win his favor, but he barely notices them. Yet when she merely furrows her brow or lowers her gaze, the heir is left troubled and restless.

Everyone says Yan Wei treasures his consort above all else and dotes on her without reserve. But only Gu Yuanqiu knows that the man who shares her bed, though their hearts are worlds apart, is descended from the very person who murdered her father. Her every careful move to get close to him has been a deception.

And yet, though she deceived Yan Wei, why couldn't she deceive herself?

In the depths of the imperial prison, shackled and chained, Yan Wei gazed at her with dark eyes. Amid the blood and filth, he gave her a gentle, pitying smile. "A Yuan, don't look back."

Her chest ached fiercely. She stepped forward and kissed him, catching him off guard before he could hide his astonishment. Their breaths mingled, hot and lingering.

"Your Highness, this time, I am the one who wronged you. If you want me to make it up to you, then live."

*

Outsiders know Yan Wei as a flamboyant, freewheeling heir with everything going for him, devastatingly handsome and carefree in love.

But he knows that a cherished silhouette lives in his heart, one he cannot cut away or reach.

He lives in the dark, while she is the light shining through its cracks, warming him without knowing it.

After she disappeared, he fell into the abyss once more, convinced he would never climb out of that pitch-black well.

Until she returned under another identity.

He could have endured it, but she should never have come to tempt him by offering herself as bait to a tiger.

This time, even if she digs a trap for him, he will gladly leap in.

- Three autumns of longing for you, I return the song you sang in your humble days -

1. One-on-one romance, mutual salvation, happy ending.

2. Set in a fictional world, with some plot elements inspired by the Northern Song dynasty poetry trials. Discussion welcome.

3. Both leads are hard-working people trying to live their lives earnestly. The male lead is innocent.

Coming next: Trapped in the Imperial Court. Please add it to your reading list!

Yan Lingyin grew up in the inner palace, always beside her neglected mother, praying before the Buddha. Her only wish was to leave the palace when she came of age and see the vast mountains and rivers and the bright moon in the endless sky with her own eyes.

But all she received was her father's final letter.

Forced onto the throne against her will, she saw too much coldness and too many attacks from the shadows. The only person by her side, willing to listen to her foolish dreams of wandering the world, was Su Mi, a hostage prince who was just as powerless to protect himself. He had a pair of captivating fox eyes, their corners lifting when he smiled, and a blood-red cinnabar mark between his brows.

"When peace reigns across the land, I will accompany Your Majesty beyond the palace walls."

She believed him, and she hoped. But in the end, she lost both her family and her country. He stepped over the bones of her people, took her place as the victor, and claimed her for himself.

With their former affection exhausted, Yan Lingyin arranged everything and left without a backward glance, leaving Su Mi only a corpse too disfigured to recognize. Snow fell heavily that day. They say he stood before her ice coffin for a full day and night, smiling as he coughed up blood until it covered him.

She knew how to let go and had never regretted it. She simply never expected Su Mi to be a complete madman.

"If the palace cannot keep you, then I will take the empire. But if even the empire cannot bind you, A Yin, what am I supposed to do?"

He would have to do something to force her to come back and kill him with her own hands.

*

"I once kept a little bird. She was fragile and helpless, sensitive and suspicious. Step by step, I lured her into my trap, until the day I closed it and everything went exactly as I wished.

She was beautiful. Even with her wings clipped and her imprisoned in a cage, she could still make me fall for her with ease.

Fine clothes and jewelry, rare treasures and curiosities, if she wanted something, I would find it for her. She was just a plaything, and I could afford to keep her.

But she said I didn't understand. That day, I stood in the snow and thought for a long time before I finally understood.

Between the two of us, which one was truly the heartless one?"

You are the caged bird I trapped by mistake, and the Water-Moon Guanyin I foolishly dared to desire.

Clear-eyed heroine x beautiful, unhinged man

Theme: May all your wishes come true, and may you live without fear or regret.