After I Died, the Obsessive Emperor Held a Cremation for Me

Next up: an angsty groveling romance

Everyone in Qingtan Village said that, given Yun Yingrong's status and looks, being chosen to serve the master in the palace was a blessing he'd earned over eight lifetimes.

Serving the ruler was like serving a tiger, but if he watched his words and actions and kept his master happy, he could secure wealth and honor for his whole family.

When Yun Yingrong first entered the palace, he thought so too.

That was until a fire broke out in the Golden Throne Hall. While saving the emperor, Yun Yingrong suffered burns to his face, revealing the looks he'd hidden for eighteen years.

The handsome emperor, sinister and inscrutable, hooked a finger into the false skin covering his face, his smile chilling.

"I had no idea there was such a beauty by my side."

Yun Yingrong's mother had once told him that being too beautiful wasn't a blessing, but a calamity.

Her words came true.

-

Yun Yingrong was elevated to empress.

A man born in the countryside, with nothing but a pretty face, no power or connections, and barely able to read: what did he have to deserve it?

And yet Fu Yan doted on him so much that there was even a seat for him in the Golden Throne Hall to listen in on court affairs.

Everyone said Fu Yan had been bewitched by Yun Yingrong's looks. Only Yun Yingrong knew that wasn't the case.

Fu Yan was more clear-headed than anyone. Yun Yingrong was simply a tool for humiliating Chancellor Gao, a toy to be casually teased in Fu Yan's bed, and a pawn in Fu Yan's campaign to reform the court and purge the traitors.

He was anything but the empress.

No empress would be treated that way.

When he accepted a grass shuttlecock made by a palace servant, Fu Yan throttled him and insulted him as a commoner from the countryside.

When he quietly sent away a palace musician who'd been playing the zither all day, Fu Yan punished him by making him play until his fingers were covered in bloody scabs.

Of course, when Fu Yan was in a good mood, he might grant him some favors in bed.

But how cheap and base they were.

Since ancient times, emperors had been fickle. Yun Yingrong understood: he had never belonged in this palace, behind its towering walls.

Later, the two armies went to war and Yun Yingrong was captured. The young crown prince of the enemy nation allowed him to take a message back to Fu Yan.

Yun Yingrong said, "Your Majesty, how innocent I was."

Yun Yingrong died on the battlefield, his body never found.

-

Fu Yan's surname was Fu and his given name was Yan. He was born a dog. The incompetent, lustful emperor had sired him while traveling south to spread his seed. He was born in a mass grave outside Qingtan and grew up eating the flesh of the dead.

Some called him a stray dog no one wanted. Others called him a mad dog that bit everyone.

No one acknowledged him as the emperor's illegitimate son, abandoned outside the palace. The people of Qingtan Village called him a bastard.

Except for one person: a small, soft-spoken blind boy who gave him baked flatbread.

The villagers called him A Ruan.

A Ruan called him A Fu.

Fu Yan was only ever kind to A Ruan.

Later, he learned that Yun Yingrong was his A Ruan.

-

Fu Yan went mad.

He knew Yun Yingrong wasn't dead. Yun Yingrong couldn't be dead. Yun Yingrong had to be alive.

Three years later, he did find Yun Yingrong.

Only, he was in another man's arms.

*Angsty groveling romance, happy ending, one-on-one, both leads are virgins

Theme: Not available