After Humiliating a Black-Bellied Omega, I Faked My Death

[Preview: The Empress Reigns, blurb below]

[Third-person narration] [Angst and remorse] [Love-triangle showdown]

The third day of the third lunar month was the day I married Mei Yin, the eldest princess of the Divine Realm. It was also the day I died.

I am Jing Zhi, the Demon Princess, the beloved youngest daughter of the Demon Emperor. I have a sweet face but a willful nature.

Mei Yin is my opposite: a pure, immaculate flower, while I am the most venomous snake in hell.

And yet the venomous snake fell in love with the sacred flower.

During a war between gods and demons, she was captured by the Demon Realm. From then on, I imprisoned and whipped her, even forcing myself on her when she was in heat.

If you won't love me, then hate me!

But she said, "I neither love nor hate you. You are merely a trial on my path of cultivation."

I laughed. I know how twisted my laughter sounded.

Loving someone is so exhausting. Suddenly, I was tired of it.

I untied the ropes binding her and gave her back her freedom.

The gods and demons went to war again. My father died at her hands, and peace was made between the two realms.

The Demon Realm wanted me to marry her to ensure peace for all eternity. I refused.

But she came to find me, saying that we had to marry for the sake of the world.

I was tired. I wanted nothing more to do with the troubles of this world.

So, on the day of the wedding, I humiliated her one last time. I tore up the marriage contract in front of everyone, stabbed her, and swallowed a deadly poison.

From then on, Jing Zhi, the Demon Princess, ceased to exist.

I don't know what happened afterward. I only heard that a fallen immortal appeared in the Immortal Realm, a young woman with a head of white hair. She refused the supreme throne of divine power, traveling back and forth between Heaven and Earth and sacrificing her life to reverse time, all to bring her wife back to life.

Who was her wife?

I think it was me.

By then, I had long since let go of the past. I lived among mortals, enjoying myself and doing very well in love. I was having a wonderful time.

[The following is a preview blurb]

A gentle, straightforward top student with a high tolerance for nonsense vs. a cold, seductive, scheming, sinister empress who is a bottom

Xiao Qingxuan disguises herself as a man and places first in the imperial examinations, only to be demoted to county magistrate in her hometown for a crime she never committed.

When she returns, her older brother has just died, leaving his widow in her care.

Her sister-in-law has skin as fair as ice and snow, and a cool, self-possessed manner. Xiao Qingxuan initially plans to send her back to her family and restore her freedom to marry.

But overcome with grief and out of her mind, her sister-in-law mistakes her for her brother.

Given their compromising proximity and the passage of time, Xiao Qingxuan dodges the issue again and again, but in the end they wind up in the same bed.

Xiao Qingxuan thinks that, given her sister-in-law's pitiful background, the two of them could spend the rest of their lives happily together.

Then, one day, her sister-in-law leaves her behind.

It turns out she only used Xiao Qingxuan as a shield to evade danger. Everything that had happened between them had been nothing more than a diversion to her.

Her sister-in-law's real name is Lan Shuo. She is the empress's daughter and the current dynasty's eldest princess. After being sentenced to death for treason, she faked her death and fled to Xiao Qingxuan's hometown.

By chance, she took on the identity of Xiao Qingxuan's sister-in-law and went into hiding with the Xiao family.

After the empress dies, Lan Shuo returns to the court and seizes the throne.

Xiao Qingxuan naturally stops entertaining thoughts of someone so exalted. Her life returns to normal, and when someone arranges a match for her, she goes along with it.

Just as she is about to start a new romance, an imperial edict summons her back to the capital.

That night, the normally cool and sinister new empress forces her onto the dragon bed. "In the past, you dared to overstep your station night after night, Xiao Qingxuan. Why are you suddenly afraid?"

*

Lan Shuo has an empress for a mother who is suspicious by nature and even tried to kill her for fear she would usurp the throne. She faked her death and hid with the Xiao family, where she met Xiao Qingxuan, the new top scorer in the imperial examinations.

Xiao Qingxuan is quite attractive and treats her well. Life in a common household is dull, so she makes for a pleasant diversion.

When Lan Shuo returns to court, she thinks that their absurd time together is over and that she won't care. Who could have guessed the other woman would think the same?

That leaves her feeling all kinds of complicated...

Now that the whole world belongs to her, the woman must belong to her too.

Theme: Keep kindness in your heart and treat the people and things you encounter with compassion.