After My Childhood Rival Turned Dark

[My new novel, The Emperor's Wrath After I Faked My Death, is now underway. Blurb at the very end]

Everyone at the academy knew that Gan Li and Lu Suihuai didn't get along.

She looked down on his unruly ways, and he couldn't stand her arrogance.

But the thing that rankled Gan Li most was what happened after class one day

Someone teased Lu Suihuai, "You argue with Gan Li every day. Could it be that you like her?"

Gan Li heard him hurriedly deny it. "She's spoiled and willful. I could never like her!"

Fuming, Gan Li shot back, "As if I would want you to like me!"

Later, the Gan family fell into ruin, and after a series of twists and turns, Gan Li became the Prince of Yi's secret weapon.

His first mission for her was to seduce the young master of the Lu family.

Though they hadn't seen each other in five years, the memory of her quarrels with Lu Suihuai as a girl still made Gan Li feel uneasy.

She steeled herself. When she saw that familiar, peerlessly handsome face on the road he was bound to take, she smiled brightly and went to greet him.

"Young Master Lu, it's been a long time."

-

Gan Li had never imagined that her seduction would go so smoothly.

Her heart, which shouldn't have wavered, was repeatedly thrown into turmoil by his gentleness and thoughtfulness.

Though she hesitated, on the day of the palace coup, she still turned her blade against him.

In the imperial prison, she delivered poisoned wine to Lu Suihuai on the orders of the Prince of Yi, now the new Emperor.

Unable to look at his dimming eyes any longer, she left him with only one thing to say: "Hate me. I'm sorry."

-

The next time Gan Li saw Lu Suihuai was at her investiture ceremony as an Imperial Consort.

He had led his troops into the imperial city, and now he advanced toward her step by step, a bloodied sword in his hand.

The once carefree young master, full of pride and vigor, had changed completely. He had become a sinister, ruthless madman.

As he looked at her trembling lashes, his eyes held no warmth. He spoke with a faint, mocking smile.

"Consort Gan, how have you been?"

· Childhood friends / bickering couple + reunion after a long separation + taking by force + winning her back

[Reader's Guide]

1. SC, 1v1, HE

2. This story is full of angst, push and pull, and soapy sweetness. If that's your kind of thing, give it a try~

3. An alternate setting; the worldbuilding serves the plot

4. The heroine once had a vague, girlish fondness for the second male lead, the Prince of Yi, but she didn't love him, and they never had a physical relationship. Her investiture as an Imperial Consort never went through. This is important.

5. The male lead's personality changes drastically after a traumatic experience, and the story includes taking the heroine by force

[New Novel: The Emperor's Wrath After I Faked My Death]

After falling from grace, Huo Zeyan went from being the heir of a marquis to a prisoner. The only person who stayed by his side was the mute bedchamber attendant he had never thought much of.

Watching Xian Shuang burst into tears over the smallest injury, watching her frantically gesture with her hands and break into a sweat as she sought a doctor, watching her blush and avert her eyes while tending his wounds, Huo Zeyan could only feel disgusted and amused.

What wishful thinking, he thought.

Even in his fallen state, he could never love a lowly mute slave.

-

After Huo Zeyan seized the throne and became Emperor, everyone said Xian Shuang had finally gotten her happy ending. Even Xian Shuang thought so herself.

Until, one day on a pleasure boat, she went to find Huo Zeyan with the matching lock she'd carved for them, only to hear him speaking about her to someone else.

"How could a lowly mute slave deserve the position of Imperial Consort? A meritorious official? She's nothing but a useless burden I can't get rid of."

Hearing his cold, callous voice, she felt as if she'd fallen into an icy abyss.

It turned out that all her efforts had been nothing but a complete joke in his eyes.

That night, the matching lock fell to the ground and shattered, leaving a glaring crack.

And before his shattered gaze, she leapt into the rushing, freezing river.

-

Much later, Huo Zeyan finally found the woman who had faked her death to escape him.

She was holding the hand of a dainty little girl, with a refined, gentle man standing beside her. She was smiling tenderly.

But the moment she saw him, her smile vanished, replaced by wariness and fear.

"Didn't you already die?" He strode toward her and grabbed her wrist as she tried to pull away. The corners of his eyes reddened. "I didn't let you die. How dare you?"

*

[Next novel, obsession and regret: The Regent's Wrath After I Faked My Death]

During the years Shang Xu was imprisoned in Pei Zhiwei's residence, she would sometimes think about the past.

Back then, she had been the most famous qin player in the capital.

And he had been the dashing young nobleman who stirred up the whole city in his efforts to marry her.

But later, the Pei family fell, and she had no choice but to give herself to another man.

Unexpectedly, on the day of her wedding, Pei Zhiwei led his troops into the imperial city and took her by force before everyone's eyes.

-

Shang Xu knew that Pei Zhiwei had stopped loving her long ago.

He kept her imprisoned in the Regent's residence, humiliating her day and night, yet never giving her a title.

He even forced her to give away the qin he had once gifted her.

On New Year's Eve, the court officials gathered for a banquet. He ordered her to play the qin and pour wine for their entertainment.

When an official took a liking to her and asked to have her, she heard Pei Zhiwei speak scornfully.

"How could someone as lowly and heartless as a courtesan catch your eye?"

Hearing the chill in his voice, her hand trembled. As she poured the wine, it spilled from the cup and soaked the official's clothes. He took the opportunity to pull her into his arms.

She turned in alarm and saw Pei Zhiwei's face darken as he yanked her out of the man's embrace.

"Of course you'd be good at seducing men, with your background in the brothels."

"You want to go with someone else?"

That night, he bit down hard on her shoulder and pronounced his sentence in her ear.

"Shang Xu, even if you die, you'll die in my arms."

That winter seemed endless. She knocked over the brazier in her bedroom, set fire to the qin she would never play again, and burned everything to ashes.

-

Pei Zhiwei had always thought he hated Shang Xu.

That woman was greedy for status and wealth, faithless and heartless, and far too good at pretending. She deserved to die.

He thought they would spend their lives tormenting each other.

Until, on the Lantern Festival night, word reached him that a fire had broken out in her room. Eyes bloodshot, he rushed into the flames without a second thought. But when he found only a burned qin and a body too charred to recognize, he vomited blood.

Fireworks fell from the sky, like the night they first met, but the body in his arms had long since gone cold.

Only then, in the depths of his heartbreak, did he realize how bitterly he regretted everything.

He had never hated her. The only person he had ever hated was himself.

· Gentle, resilient first love × a Regent driven mad by darkness

Theme: Let go of hatred to find a new beginning