So the Empress Doesn't Love Me

[Dual rebirth] [Groveling to win her back] [Coercive possession] [Romantic rivalry] A melodramatic tale of love and hate

Main story complete. Bonus chapters updated regularly. Read with confidence.

Happy New Year, everyone! Taking New Year's Eve off, my dears. Wishing you all the best in the coming year.

My next novel is The Younger Brother's Wife, with the same style as this one: a bittersweet, melodramatic story about winning her back. Also, please add my new novels to your to-read lists: #8082347 The Emperor's Thighs Are So Pale, also known as The Emperor Suffers Public Humiliation Every Day, a sweet romance where the heroine hears people's thoughts; #10612897 The Third Year After Being Driven Out of the Eastern Palace; the reader-vote novel #10323553 So You're My Husband Too? My friend's novel is already out: The Mad Younger Uncle and His Widowed Sister-in-Law, a forbidden romance called His Inheritance. Go check them out if you're interested, dears.

As the fifth emperor of the Great Zhou dynasty, Li Cong lived a remarkable life. He survived the bloody struggle among seven princes, governed with both civil and military skill, rooted out corruption, built waterways, and led campaigns south against the Baiyue and north against the Ciman. Though his achievements did not surpass those of Yao and Shun, he was truly an emperor for the ages.

His empress was instrumental in all his achievements. Xie Mingzhi was virtuous and wise, and in the court she stood beside him as his partner. When he went to war, she donned armor herself to defend his city and govern in his stead. In the harem, she treated the consorts kindly, and gave his children born to concubines the same treatment as his legitimate children. She supported him, bore him many children, and was the perfect wife, leaving him free of worries.

Xie Mingzhi was a wise empress, and she loved him deeply. Li Cong was absolutely certain of that.

He had no regrets in his life. Yet after dying peacefully in old age, he was reborn at twenty, before he had been made a prince. He still intended to seize the throne and become emperor, but this time, he planned to make Xie Mingzhi his princess consort from the start, granting her the highest honors and an easier life.

But when the selection of consorts unfolded as it had in his previous life, Xie Mingzhi was nowhere on the list.

He stopped the young Xie Mingzhi in her tracks. Li Cong was momentarily dazed. Had she been this beautiful in her previous life? She was radiant, like the loveliest apricot blossom on a branch. He confessed his feelings and promised to treat her as his principal wife. But instead of shyly accepting with joy, she said:

"Thank you for your regard, Your Highness, but I am already engaged."

He saw her walking alongside another man, saw him brush the apricot blossoms from her shoulder, and watched them exchange tender looks. Rage made his eyes bulge. Xie Mingzhi was his empress. How could she fall in love with someone else?

He absolutely refused to believe that the virtuous wife who had taken an arrow for him, borne his children, and welcomed a vast harem did not love him!

Xie Mingzhi had spent twenty years on the path from a concubine in the prince's household to the exalted empress of Great Zhou. She helped Li Cong ascend the throne, managed affairs of the court and harem, and earned the praise of officials and the respect of the consorts. She bore Li Cong seven children, more than any other woman in the harem. She and Li Cong were a devoted imperial couple who fought side by side. Everyone said how lucky she was: a lowly concubine who had somehow been born to be empress and won the emperor's true love.

Only she knew how difficult and arduous that road had been. Li Cong said he made her empress, gave her more children than anyone else, and made her son crown prince, all as great honors. His beloved, idealized first love had to settle for the rank of Noble Consort because of her. She should have been grateful.

Reborn, she did not want to be a wise empress again.

But the man she had done everything to avoid, the emperor of Great Zhou and her husband in her previous life, stubbornly stood in front of her with tears in his eyes. "Mingzhi, you can't leave me. We were husband and wife for more than thirty years. How can you be so cruel as to abandon me?"

Xie Mingzhi could not understand. This time, she had chosen to give way to him and his beloved idealized first love. Why did he keep pursuing her and refuse to let her go?

Extra scene: Blood ran down the blade and dripped from its tip, pooling into a small puddle. The head of the man who was supposedly engaged to Xie Mingzhi rolled to one side, eyes open in death. Li Cong looked at her with an impossibly tender expression, smiling.

"Mingzhi, it would be one thing if he coveted you, but he was engaged to you and still carried on with another woman. I dealt with him for you. Are you happy?"

Xie Mingzhi trembled all over, forcing words of rebuke from her mouth. "You're a madman!"

Li Cong was not angered. He only smiled more gently. "Even if I'm mad, I'm mad with love for you. Mingzhi, you mustn't love anyone else. Whoever tries to take you from me, I'll kill them!"

Content warnings: The style is very old-fashioned, with plenty of coercive possession and groveling to win her back. The hero is awful and behaves like a dog early on. The second male lead might win her.

Anti-piracy measures enabled, 70%.

Next novel: The Emperor's Thighs Are So Pale

Theme: Live for yourself.