After Reincarnating as the Cannon-Fodder Crown Prince

[The novel is complete. Please leave a rating!] [New historical BL next door: After Sharing Senses with My Archenemy. Please add it to your reading list!] Ning Xiuyun has lived a dutiful, by-the-book life for over twenty years, exhausting himself for the glory of the Ning family. Just when he is gravely ill and near death, he has a vivid dream in the operating room, only to discover that he gets to open his eyes again. A Thousand Years of Ambition is a typical male-protagonist novel. It begins with the death of Crown Prince Ning Yuan and ends with the male lead, Jian Xun, ascending the throne. It tells the story of how an emperor rose to power. Ning Xiuyun wakes up inside the book as its doomed cannon-fodder crown prince, fated to die within eight months. In other words, all he needs to do is make it through those eight months, and then he can finally die in peace. Ning Xiuyun is relieved. He waits for death in peace, occasionally testing the limits of the plot and digging up secrets the book never mentioned to add some spice to his life. He even picks a man he likes to spend the night with. Ning Xiuyun gets so caught up in flirting that he can’t stop, until one day he and his lover exchange heartfelt confessions. His lover: “My surname is Jian. My given name is Xun.” Ning Xiuyun: ? Wait, what was the name of the guy who would kill him to prove his worth and ascend the throne? Didn’t he have the surname Jian too? He falls into deep thought. * The most outrageous thing Jian Xun has ever done is privately pledge himself to a male courtesan at Zuifeng House. When they parted, he gave the man a carrier pigeon. They exchanged letters by pigeon, and their feelings grew stronger, until the day Jian Xun earned a military honor and the pigeon flapped into the crown prince’s tent next door. Jian Xun: ? The humble courtesan who had fallen in love with him and promised to stay by his side had turned out to be the exalted crown prince. His pupils contract in shock. A scheming, uninhibited, seductive beauty bottom x the upright, kindhearted, loyal male lead top One-on-one, both virgins, happy ending Important notes: 1. The dynasty is fictional, and everything in the novel is made up by the author. Please don’t take it as history. 2. Pure fluff, no angst. Readers with strong preferences, please read with care. 3. Romance-focused, slow plot, simplistic political scheming. The plot serves the romance. [New serial: After Sharing Senses with My Archenemy. Blurb below] Xie Wuzhi is the Crown Prince of the Northern Kingdom, and Yan Ziqing is the eldest prince of the Southern Kingdom. They first meet on the front lines of a border battlefield, where their armies face off, swords drawn and tempers flaring. Xie Wuzhi sends soldiers to provoke the enemy, cursing Yan Ziqing as a bastard. Yan Ziqing shoots back with an arrow, severing the Northern Kingdom’s battle flag from a hundred meters away. After that, Yan Ziqing conceals his identity and tricks Xie Wuzhi twice in a row, making a fortune. Furious, Xie Wuzhi retaliates by leading his troops to seize three cities from the Southern Kingdom. From then on, they are sworn enemies, each hoping the other will drop dead as soon as possible. Unfortunately, fate has other plans. An accident leaves them both infected with the same parasite. During a scuffle, Yan Ziqing slashes Xie Wuzhi’s arm, and pain blooms in the exact same place on his own arm. Xie Wuzhi grips Yan Ziqing by the throat, only to start choking himself a moment later. Yan Ziqing and Xie Wuzhi: “You *%&#! ambushed me!” Until they can break the curse, the two men who can’t stand each other have no choice but to grit their teeth and cover for one another. * Bound together by the Heart-Linking Parasite, the two pretend to work on breaking the curse while secretly plotting against each other. Yan Ziqing is all honeyed words and hidden daggers. He lures Xie Wuzhi into the remote mountains of southern Xinjiang, planning to escape as soon as the curse is lifted. But the uninhabited mountains are full of dangers. Yan Ziqing is caught off guard and falls into a deep ravine with Xie Wuzhi. They struggle out of the rushing river and onto the bank. Shivering around a fire, the two men reach an unprecedented agreement as they curse the harmful tricks of sorcery. Xie Wuzhi grits his teeth. “Before I left Yanjing, someone had my fortune told. The fortune-teller was an amateur and said I had a destined match. Look at the state I’m in now…” “Those so-called peach blossoms are all rotten luck!” He speaks with a scowl, glaring at Yan Ziqing, his eyes burning with anger and his words pointed. Yan Ziqing: “?” What does that mean? Is he still trying to provoke me? * Yan Ziqing loses a fight with Xie Wuzhi and is captured on the spot. He gives up resisting and lets Xie Wuzhi take him back to the Northern Territories, where he is imprisoned in his residence. On his first day in the Northern Territories, Xie Wuzhi spends half an hour cursing him. It barely fazes him. On his sixth day in the Northern Territories, his old arrow wound flares up and he loses consciousness. When his fever finally breaks, he hears Xie Wuzhi say he’s going to hack him to pieces. On his thirty-ninth day in the Northern Territories, Xie Wuzhi has stopped trying to break the curse and no longer says anything cutting. He kicks open Yan Ziqing’s bedroom door with a pair of live geese in hand. “Take the betrothal gifts, and I’ll reluctantly spare your life.” Yan Ziqing: “?” Did I get up too fast? I think I just heard my archenemy say he wants to marry me. * [A side character’s perspective] Yan Zhen, the Southern Kingdom’s second prince, has a dream. In it, his elder brother loses the succession struggle and is banished to his fief in Luzhou, never to have a chance at the throne again. Yan Zhen successfully seizes power and orders his brother’s execution to eliminate any future threat. But before long, the enemy army breaches the kingdom’s borders. His brother’s lover storms into the palace with a long halberd and runs him through with a single thrust. When Yan Zhen wakes up, he quickly pleads for his brother and has him sent to the front lines to oversee the war. Half a year passes. The fighting at the border is fierce, and word reaches him that his brother has no time for love while defending against the enemy. He has also become sworn enemies with the Northern Kingdom’s crown prince. Yan Zhen makes another attempt to turn people against his brother, hoping to get rid of him once and for all. But barely has the eldest prince been escorted back to the capital when the Northern Kingdom’s army is already at the gates. The Northern Kingdom’s crown prince personally leads the attack on the palace and demands to know where the eldest prince is. Yan Zhen suddenly realizes that his brother’s supposed archenemy looks exactly like the lover from his dream! What the hell! How can you two even get together? Are you insane? #The Peach Blossom Palace was supposed to bring me romance, so why did it turn into a romantic disaster?# #Isn’t it perfectly normal for my archenemy to be the one who kills me?# Theme: Keep moving forward.