The Demon Queen and the Tyrant Reborn

An honest person playing dumb to catch a tiger | Reborn | Married first, in love later

1.

In their previous life, Zhongli Heng and Shen Puyu were an honest couple bound together by an imperial edict of marriage.

Zhongli Heng was the gentle, refined Prince Jin, scholarly in manner and considered the least capable of all the princes. He was excluded from the political arena at an early age.

Shen Puyu was the lowly, least-favored daughter in her family. Timid and meek, she was unloved by both parents. When she came of age, her family pushed her into a marriage to get her out of the way, marrying her off to Prince Jin, the most useless man in the capital.

The two meek, honest souls married, were kicked out of the capital's noble circles, and sent off to live hard lives in a desolate fief.

2.

Then a palace coup swept through the royal family, leaving no princes or grandsons alive. The court was thrown into chaos, and with no one left to rule, someone remembered Prince Jin, who had been kicked out of the capital. They dragged the supposedly useless prince onto the throne, and his timid, weak-willed wife became the Empress.

The court officials all thought the puppet couple would be easy to control.

No one expected that this seemingly pliant, gentle emperor would behead the regent, confiscate the Grand Tutor's estate, seize the general's military authority, and establish the "Heaven's Eye" to keep watch over every official on the very first day of his reign. Anyone who made even the slightest mistake was dragged away and executed.

The court officials trembled and cursed him as a tyrant!

Everyone pinned their hopes on the meek and easily bullied Shen Puyu.

"Her Majesty the Empress is so dignified and gentle. Surely she can advise His Majesty..." The official stopped mid-sentence, stunned by the scene inside Kunning Palace.

There stood the ever-virtuous Empress in a red dress, her eyes seductive. A cool, aloof gentleman knelt before her: the most upright and incorruptible top scorer of the imperial examinations. Shen Puyu's breath was sweet as orchids as she flirtatiously hooked a finger under his chin. "My dear subject, you have quite a handsome face."

The official gritted his teeth and spat, "Wicked empress!"

3.

For more than a decade, the whole country lived under the shadow of the tyrant and his wicked empress.

Then one day, the Crown Prince returned from the dead to seize the throne. The tyrant and the empress were both executed, and the country returned to the light.

But no one expected that after dying, the tyrant and the wicked empress would both be reborn.

They returned to the day before the Crown Prince's coup.

"We made one mistake last time. This time, we have to turn things around," Shen Puyu said, analyzing the situation as she crossed her legs and munched on melon seeds. "What do you think? Speak up."

Zhongli Heng silently watched her for a long while. Then, with reddened eyes, he asked, "Did it hurt?"

In his final moments in his previous life, he had watched Shen Puyu being pierced through the heart by a thousand arrows. Zhongli Heng had thought only one thing: His Puyu was so delicate. It must have hurt terribly.

Every time he thought of it, his heart felt as if it were being cut by a knife.

Warnings:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads have no prior sexual experience, happy ending. The male lead has no harem in any meaningful sense; he only has the female lead.

2. The male lead does not kill innocents, only those who are guilty.

3. The female lead likes to flirt with her words, but she does not have an improper relationship with any supporting characters.

Theme: Supporting each other through adversity, fighting side by side, and being unstoppable.