The Duke of Dingguo, Favored Above All in the Six Palaces

[Everyone has a complicated romantic past, 1v1 pairings at different stages, outrageous melodrama, father-and-son love triangle]

[Writing this out of love and indulging myself. I'll replace the main text later, probably starting updates around October~]

When Du Guxue was old enough to understand things, he realized that his father and the emperor had an unusually close relationship.

His father was the undefeated Duke Dingguo, a celebrated general who was deeply favored by the emperor. Whenever he returned to report on his duties each year, he stayed directly in the palace and never once set foot in his own home.

As he grew older, Du Guxue began to understand just how unusual the relationship between the emperor and his father was. No wonder everyone at court had long since tacitly understood the truth, while the other noble families' sons looked at him with amusement and pity.

There was only one reason: Du Guxue had grown into a young man whose looks and build were... exactly like his father's.

Du Guxue cautiously and nervously endured until he was old enough to leave the capital and take up an official post. Just as he was preparing to make a name for himself, he was summoned to the palace on the night before his departure.

The palace was draped in mourning, white banners everywhere. The young man on the throne had bloodshot eyes. With trembling hands, he drew the boy into his arms.

"Your father..." The emperor choked back tears, losing his voice several times. "From now on, you will stay in the palace. I will treat you as my own."

The emperor's scalding tears dampened Du Guxue's lapel. He looked at the complicated expression in the emperor's eyes and understood, in horror.

He was merely a pitiful substitute, perfect as if bestowed by heaven, yet someone who should never have been so easily defiled.

Every day and night after entering the palace, Du Guxue tossed and turned, suffering unbearable torment.

The emperor treated him like a precious treasure, but the other princes and consorts regarded him with jealousy and contempt.

Everyone in the palace knew why Du Guxue was so favored, yet no one dared show the slightest displeasure in front of the emperor.

What terrified the princes even more was that, after spending so much time with Du Guxue, they discovered that the wretch really did have a certain charm. No wonder he and his father had both bewitched their emperor father so completely.

After years of restraint and patience, the emperor personally arranged Du Guxue's coming-of-age ceremony. After the banquet, he took him alone to the hot springs at the imperial retreat.

All the princes knew what this meant, but none dared step in to stop the imperial carriage as it sped away.

Only the crown prince mounted his horse without hesitation, fought his way through the imperial guards, and pursued them at the risk of his life.

Beside the hot spring, fallen petals drifted through the air. Du Guxue lay languidly in the emperor's arms, his body marked with faint red traces.

Nervous and bashful, he watched the bloodied crown prince slowly kneel and bow to beg forgiveness.

The crown prince said, "I just received an urgent report. The Duke Dingguo... is still alive!"

Reader's Guide

1. 1v1 pairings at different stages, everyone has a complicated romantic past, ensemble cast, happy ending.

2. A chaotic, evil, melodramatic, angsty father-and-son love triangle.

3. The emperor and his father have had consorts and male lovers. The crown prince and A-Xue have not.

[PS: Both generations of Dukes Dingguo are peerless charmers, but the father is always the pursuer, while A-Xue is always the pursued.]

[The consorts and male lovers are just incidental characters who will gradually be sent away as the story progresses. By the end, the main characters will have only each other.]

Theme: Make peace with the past and embrace a beautiful future.