After Being Forced into a Substitute Romance, I Faked My Death

The top scholar paraded through the streets to the deafening beat of drums and gongs.

The Grand Princess of Changning, who had just lost the person she loved, leaned by a second-floor window and flicked a pebble at the young man riding a tall horse in his bright red top scholar's robe.

Then, gazing at the young man's face, so similar to the one she loved, she smiled. "Would you be willing to marry a princess?"

"No." The young man frowned, turned his face away, and never looked back.

Later, with the streets deserted, the young man, now the princess's consort, finally persuaded her to let him go. He rode with her, intending to accompany her on her final journey.

On the road out of the city, the princess asked him, "If I leave and never come looking for you again, what then?"

He replied, "Then I suppose I'll have brought it on myself."

That day, he still didn't look back.

And so the princess was stabbed to death amid the ice and snow.

Brilliant, unhinged grand princess × gentle, upright top scholar

Reader's Guide:

1. Gender-swapped version of a domineering romance, BG, both leads are virgins.

2. The female lead is a warrior, the male lead a scholar, and she becomes empress in the end.

Theme: Strive for the peace and stability of the nation, fear no hardship, and forge ahead.