The Third Prince I Raised Ascended the Throne

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The legitimate daughter of the Li family, unmatched in beauty, became even more favored once she entered the palace, enjoying a moment of unparalleled prestige.

Under the envious gazes of the entire palace, Li Shu simply ate when it was time to eat and drank when it was time to drink, seemingly unmoved by either favor or disgrace.

Because she was not the Li family’s legitimate daughter, and had not the slightest connection to the family at all. To take the place of his real daughter, who had eloped with someone, her “father” had bought her from a pleasure boat in Yangzhou.

What Li Shu longed for most was simply a carefree life of admiring flowers, drinking tea, and sleeping whenever she pleased.

The Li family had promised that if she helped them through their crisis, then after the emperor’s death, they would secretly arrange for her to leave the palace and give her enough silver to spend lavishly for the rest of her life.

The one thing they had not anticipated was that the emperor’s heart was impossible to fathom. After she crossed his bottom line, Li Shu was left behind at the imperial summer retreat, and all her wishes came to nothing. She could forget about living out her retirement in comfort; even getting enough to eat became a problem.

Just as she thought she would have to spend the rest of her life at the retreat, an imperial decree arrived from the palace, promoting the legitimate daughter of the Li family to Noble Consort.

Before the main gate of the retreat, in front of a golden-yellow phoenix palanquin, a young man in a crimson robe embroidered with golden dragons knelt on one knee. When he looked up at her, his dark eyes burned brightly. “Your son welcomes Mother Consort back to the palace.”

Li Shu was startled. Had the Third Prince, whom she had helped all those years ago, really grown so tall?

But why was he calling her Mother Consort?

Only later, from a palace maid who had remained within the palace walls all these years, did she learn that the Third Prince had earned merit by suppressing bandits. When the emperor asked what reward he wanted, he asked for nothing, only to recognize Consort Li, who had once shown him kindness, as his mother.

Li Shu did not think the meals she had given him back then could possibly earn her such a great reward. After turning it over in her mind, she could think of no way to repay him except to serve the emperor diligently and do her best to put in a good word for her adopted son.

She only hoped that one day the Third Prince would ascend the throne and let her leave the palace to retire in peace.

Yet perhaps it was only her imagination, but whenever she tried to bring father and son closer, Xie Xun never seemed particularly pleased.

“What Mother Consort wants, your son will offer with both hands. Why ask someone else?”

Xie Xun’s brows curved in a faint smile as he picked up with his chopsticks the dish Li Shu liked best and placed it in her bowl. But the fingers holding the silver chopsticks tensed bit by bit, their knuckles turning an eerie, bone-white color.

On a day of universal celebration, the newly enthroned emperor was not in the court receiving his ministers’ congratulations. Instead, he appeared alone at the palace gates and stopped a little palace maid.

Dressed in a bright yellow dragon robe, the new emperor gazed at her through a haze of gloom. “Why are you trying to leave the palace and retire? Isn’t staying here better?”

The little palace maid lowered her eyes and bowed her head, forced to reveal a lovely face. She was none other than Empress Dowager Li, who had “died of grief” just half an hour ago.

Li Shu tilted her head up with some effort. Only then did she realize that, at some point, Xie Xun had grown into a young man, tall and long-legged, with broad, dependable shoulders.

She had simply overlooked all those changes because Xie Xun habitually lowered his head in front of her.

What left Li Shu even more flustered was that the look in his eyes was hardly innocent.

“Be my empress. You can grow flowers wherever you like.”

At first, Xie Xun’s thoughts were simple. He only wanted to repay Lady Li for the care she had shown him.

She was not clever, so he would fight for her and keep her safe in the deep palace.

If he made something of himself at court, she would have face in the harem.

But little by little, Xie Xun found himself caring more and more about Li Shu with each passing day.

Just as he was tormented by his feelings, Xie Xun discovered an interesting secret.

If that was the case, then the empress’s position his father could not give her would be his to give.

1. A sweet HE story, with the plot moving quickly.

2. The heroine is not a virgin, while the hero is; their age gap is six years.

3. They follow the law, and their feelings develop only after their relationship has ended.

My neighboring novel is now open for reading! Please give The Emperor’s Heart in Spring a try and add it to your collection. Muah!

From the fiefdom to the capital, Yan Tongchun had been at the new emperor Wei Shaoyun’s side for ten full years.

Now that he had risen from a hidden talent to a powerful ruler, she counted her savings and decided it was time to retire after a job well done.

Besides the difficulty of dressing as a man and the even greater difficulty of pretending to be a eunuch, Wei Shaoyun’s increasingly favorable attention was more imperial favor than Yan Tongchun could bear.

At this rate, she was sure to be found out sooner or later.

Just as Yan Tongchun was considering when to find a suitable opportunity to resign and return to her hometown, the other princes, resentful of the reduction of their fiefs, raised their armies in rebellion.

During the rebellion of the seven princes, Yan Tongchun was entrusted with a mission in a moment of crisis. She broke through the encirclement to deliver a message to the military camp outside the capital. She had planned to deliver the imperial edict and then use the opportunity to fake her death and disappear. But when she looked back at the palace engulfed in flames, she could not help worrying.

Watching the woman he loved return to him with disheveled hair and blood staining her lovely face, her chest heaving with hurried breaths, Wei Shaoyun slowly relaxed the fist he had clenched behind his back.

In truth, he had long since planned every move to put down the rebellion. This unnecessary mission was merely a test of one person’s heart.

Yan Tongchun did not know that if she had shown even the slightest desire to leave while delivering the message, the Imperial Guards behind her would have bound her and dragged her back on the spot.

From then on, behind brocade curtains and within the depths of spring, she would never leave again.

At this point, he still did not know that Yan Tongchun was hiding an even greater secret from him.

(Note: A romance-focused story, with a calculating male lead who is older than the heroine.

Theme: Love can overcome every obstacle.)