Marrying the Cold Branch (Reborn)

[Coming Soon: I Make My Home in the Spring Mountains, Thin Spring Robes, A Record of Delightful Eating. Please add them to your reading lists! One of the blurbs is at the very bottom.]

Zhang Wanji is the emperor's precious daughter, gentle and proper. Yet before she came of age, three of her betrothed had already died.

Everyone at court knew that the elder brother at her side held power over the court and was murderous by nature. No one dared offend him.

Late at night, her elder brother sat beside her bed, twirling a lock of her hair. His tone was like someone teasing a caged songbird:

"You are to be my future empress. Who would dare lay a hand on you?"

Her elder brother ascended the throne. During the twenty years he ruled, she kept to her place, dutiful and gentle, striving to be a good empress.

Had she not learned by accident that the man she loved had been killed by the person who shared her pillow, Zhang Wanji might have thought that she and her elder brother could somehow continue their marriage, though it was one in name only.

In her youth, she had been naive enough to believe her elder brother's lies, thinking that marrying him would keep her beloved safe. Instead, she had been kept in the dark and made his accomplice!

Spend her whole life gentle and obedient? She refused!

Be the mother of the realm? She would no longer be empress!

Be well-behaved and understanding? Never again!

-

When she opened her eyes once more, she had returned to her youth.

At the practice grounds one afternoon, the faint clamor of golden spears rang out. Gilded sunlight caught in Zhang Wanji's hair as she narrowed her eyes against the light. In a daze, she saw the young man she had longed for: proud brows, solitary and taciturn, his body covered in wounds, yet rivers seemed to flow through his slender frame.

At that time, she was still the apple of Yedu's eye. Her father was alive, and her elder brother had yet to gain power.

Her young man, the future god of war and the people's beloved Marquis of Dingbei, was still a wolf cub from a humble family, looked down upon by all.

It was five years before her elder brother would have him killed at the banquet celebrating his victorious return.

The bloody storms and shifting intrigues remained beyond the bright, clear skies. Nothing had happened yet, and nothing had been lost.

At that moment, Zhang Wanji descended gracefully from the raised platform and, out of courtesy, brought her elder brother some pastries to quench his thirst.

Everyone believed the little princess and her elder brother shared a deep bond. Even her elder brother thought so, until they saw

The princess's slender hand held a handkerchief as she carefully wiped the wounds on the young man's face, as if polishing a treasured jewel. She asked softly, "Does it hurt?"

[Gentle, restrained, and resilient little princess who boldly gets her way with her charms x Fiercely devoted, taciturn, wolfish general]

A reader's guide:

1. Mutual pining, choosing each other, mutual salvation, both virgins, happy ending, one-on-one romance.

2. The heroine and her elder brother are not related by blood. Her elder brother is domineering and unwell, and his marriage to the heroine in her previous life was in name only.

3. After the story begins, updates will be posted daily at 12:00.

4. The setting is a light blend of the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, with some fictionalization and a light touch of historical research.

Coming soon: I Make My Home in the Spring Mountains

Chun Wu is the most beautiful woman in the capital. When her family falls from power and is sentenced to execution, she is betrothed to the young lord of the Gu family.

Misfortune comes in pairs: an accident before the wedding leaves her blind.

At the wedding banquet, her fiancé suddenly goes missing. Her future in-laws throw scalding tea over her and cry, "Who would marry a jinx like you?!"

Baseless accusations crash down on her like a landslide. She retreats step by step. Someone deliberately steals her cane and trips her.

As she falls, a cool, strong hand catches her.

"I will marry her."

The man's voice is clear and rich, like gold sinking into jade, and uniquely beautiful.

At the same time, she hears everyone fall to their knees. They address him as Prince Xiangping.

He is the most notorious man in the Great Song Dynasty, wielding power over the court. The impeachments against him could circle the capital three times. The military officials call him a living demon on the battlefield, moody and unpredictable. The civil officials call him a ruthless bureaucrat, a cruel enforcer of harsh policies.

Even the emperor gives him a wide berth.

-

"I will marry her. Does anyone object?"

Not a soul dares answer in the great hall.

That night, word spreads across the capital: Prince Xiangping, that madman, has destroyed the imperial marriage arrangement on the very day he returned to the capital and forcibly taken a criminal's daughter as his wife.

Her fiancé, like those who envied Chun Wu and wished to see her live as a laughingstock, waits for her to regret it, waits for her to return and beg him, waits for her to plead for his compassion to save her from misery. But he waits and waits, only to see her rise from princess consort to empress, second only to one and above all others: The Outcast.

[The heroine's story]

Chun Wu once made a promise with a young man: she would wait for him to return and marry her.

When she was a child, she rescued someone from a pile of corpses. He had been struck by a poisoned arrow, every rib broken, his blood and vitality all but spent. He should not have survived, but she stayed by his side and nursed him back to health. Before they parted, he said, "When I return, I will marry you."

She waited and waited, for years, but in the end he never came.

- Liar. Great big liar. The biggest liar in the world.

Until one night, much later.

She felt a scar on Prince Xiangping's body.

It was the remnant of an arrow wound.

[The hero's story]

Sheng Shi is a monster who lacks emotion and cannot feel joy or sorrow.

The emperor's seventh son, he was neglected because he was born to a concubine and sent to the frontier for twenty years. The battles numbed him until he became indifferent to life and death.

During a surprise attack by the enemy, he had almost bled to death when a little girl rescued him.

She had a pair of extraordinarily beautiful eyes, with a bright, boundless galaxy in their depths.

Even after all these years, he still remembers what she said:

- "I read your fortune. You are a star of martial prowess sent from the heavens, born to travel far away and defend the lands of Great Chu."

- "I just went to report to the Palace of the King of Hell. He wouldn't dare take you."

- "You have to live, or all I've done for you will be for nothing. Understand?"

The wandering boy waited until the girl who would lead him to salvation came.

He survived.

From an unknown soldier to a crowned king, the blood and blades of his first half of life had all been for the sake of that final promise:

"Awu, I've come back to marry you."

[She planted flowers in a madman's heart. From then on, his life held less desolation and more moonlight.]

-A real forced marriage, a false power grab-

Character setup: [A devoted, gentle hero who seems calm and self-controlled but is actually obsessive and fiercely possessive x A tender, resilient heroine like a sunflower]

Theme: Love is not possession; it is letting someone fly.