The Reborn Empress Becomes a Couch Potato

[I'll spend the next few days organizing the outline and ideas. Daily updates will resume when I'm done.]

Xie Ling was born with extraordinary beauty, her radiance renowned throughout the capital. Born into humble circumstances, she rose to become the principal consort of Prince Qin, Xiao Yao, and two years later, naturally became Empress of Great Wei.

Everyone praised Xie Ling as born to be empress and envied her extraordinary good fortune. Who could have known that her husband resented her for using the debt he owed her to marry above her station and separating him from the woman he had always loved, and that he had never once been willing to give her a second look?

Seven years as husband and wife, yet they were strangers.

Xie Ling was tired of living this way.

She had no intention of trying to warm a stone that would never thaw.

Just as she was about to begin a new life, she woke from a sleep to find she had returned to her impoverished girlhood.

Her body was healthy, her vitality restored, and she had not yet developed a chronic chill after saving someone's life;

She no longer had to exhaust herself currying favor with Xiao Yao's mother and younger sister, and could live freely;

Nor did she have to worry about her empty title of empress, pretend to be virtuous and demure, or suppress her true nature.

Gazing at her peerless beauty in the mirror, Xie Ling secretly rejoiced:

Given another life, she would never deny herself again. She would choose a different way to live!

*

In his youth, Xiao Yao was exceptionally gifted, noble beyond compare, cool and upright, and strict with himself.

One day, through a moment of carelessness, he was set up and ended up being intimate with a woman. When he woke, he was shocked to discover that she was Xie Ling, the woman who had once saved him.

Moved by her deep devotion, he felt a rare surge of compassion and wanted to grant her wish. Unexpectedly, the moment he mentioned marrying her, she cut him off. "It was just an accident, Your Highness. Please don't dwell on it."

Playing hard to get. A common trick!

Xiao Yao sneered and silently counted the days, waiting to see when she would drop the act and come begging him. He waited and waited, but Xie Ling never appeared. Instead, he heard that she was engaged.

Xiao Yao had always considered himself cold and detached, but at that moment, he tasted the agony of a shattered heart and an unfulfilled longing.

Reading notes:

1. Both leads are reborn; the male lead pursues his wife after losing her, slowly regains his memories, and the female lead has a career arc.

2. Updates will follow the rankings.

Theme: In the depths of the mire, keep your heart turned toward the light.