The Emperor Regretted It Too Late After I Died

Xie Wanqing is the youngest prince of Liang, cherished by his father, the emperor, and his mother, the empress, ever since birth.

Then, on the eve of his eighteenth birthday, he had a dream.

In the dream, he was a character in a novel.

In a few years, his father would die, and the armies of Beizhao would invade Liang.

A useless pretty face with no real accomplishments, he would be sent as a peace offering to the emperor of Beizhao, delivered straight to his bed.

That emperor of Beizhao was the protagonist of the novel, Shen Tinglan, a hostage currently living in Liang.

In the novel, Shen Tinglan tortured Xie Wanqing to death.

After he died, Shen Tinglan did not even look at his broken body.

"Just a plaything with a pretty face."

With that, he had Xie Wanqing wrapped in a straw mat and dumped in a mass grave.

Xie Wanqing woke from the dream, chilled to the bone.

The officials of Liang were astonished to see their usually dignified young prince suddenly take an interest in the lowly hostage sent by Beizhao.

Every day after class, wrapped in his white fox-fur cloak, he would hurry to the filthy prison and fuss over the hostage, asking after his health.

But the hostage only looked at him coldly, without a word.

Xie Wanqing had thought that being kind to Shen Tinglan could change the fate of everyone in Liang.

But when he stood atop a tower and looked at the Beizhao army beneath the city walls, he finally understood that, in Shen Tinglan's eyes, everything he had done was nothing but a joke.

So, atop the city gate,

the beautiful ruler of Liang leapt from the wall in full view of the Beizhao army.

The letter he sent to the emperor of Beizhao before he died read:

"I am willing to take my own life to atone. I only ask Your Majesty to treat the people of Liang well."

When Xie Wanqing opened his eyes again, he found himself back on the eve of his eighteenth birthday.

In this life, he no longer fussed over Shen Tinglan as he had in his previous life.

He went to class at the Imperial Academy every day and held poetry gatherings to discuss state affairs with a group of scholars.

Yet whenever he practiced martial arts at the training grounds with a few friends, he would see someone standing not far away, motionless, watching him.

Every time, Xie Wanqing deliberately avoided his gaze.

But after a banquet one night, he lost his way on the way back to his chambers and was pinned behind a rockery.

Xie Wanqing stared at the person before him in astonishment.

The man who, as he remembered it, had hated him to the bone now had bloodshot eyes and a voice hoarse with emotion.

"Qingqing, you used to say you liked me all the time. Why won't you even look at me in this life?"

1. Both are reborn, 1v1, happy ending

Theme: Love above all