The Apricots Have Ripened Red

Ten years ago

She was a carefree little princess of the Xiqiang grasslands.

He was a poor young man selling himself in the busy streets to pay for his mother's burial.

When they first met, she was just a little girl, innocent and kind. She asked why he was crying, gave him a jade pendant and some malt candy, and rescued him from his desperate plight, giving him a taste of sweetness.

Ten years later

He was a renowned general, forged in war, with the army in his grasp. He drove out the Xiongnu and was invincible. By chance, he encountered her again. Dressed in a bridal gown and about to become a Xiongnu concubine, she had the same red mark between her brows as when she was a child. It bewitched him. He intercepted her along the way and brought her back to his residence, where he carefully kept her hidden away in a gilded cage.

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Completed work

The One in Her Heart Is the Empress: Rough Peasant Hero vs. Noble Lady Destined for Greatness

The Hua family had been distinguished for generations, and it was rare for a family to produce five empresses in a century.

The youngest daughter, Hua Wanning, was promised to the crown prince at birth. She grew up secluded in the women's quarters, raised to become the future empress. At last, in the year she came of age, an imperial decree sent her north to marry into the Eastern Palace.

But the times changed, and imperial power wavered.

The wedding procession was intercepted by river bandits while passing through Shu. Wanning nearly lost her life and her virtue, but the Qingcheng Stronghold sheltered her and saved her life.

With warlords dividing the land and the main roads blocked, she was forced to stay there while she recovered.

Witnessing the hardships of a chaotic age, where life was as cheap as grass, she transformed from a sheltered noblewoman who knew nothing of worldly affairs into a woman of courage who punished evil and upheld justice.

Sang Qingye was a burly, fierce young man from Bashu and the head of Qingcheng Stronghold.

He happened to rescue the noblewoman in distress, but couldn't stand her haughty, pampered, and lazy manner, and repeatedly mocked her.

But the noblewoman was so beautiful, so talented with words, and so knowledgeable about medicine. She could teach the stronghold's unruly children to read and write, and even help him govern the place. Before long, he willingly became her devoted admirer.

Then the winds of fortune shifted. Qingcheng Stronghold was besieged by warlords, and in a life-or-death struggle, the two fought their way out together. Step by step, they left Shu behind and ultimately established a great domain of their own.

Just when Sang Qingye thought he had everything he wanted, he learned that the woman he loved was destined to become the future empress.

Now the court had sent someone to take her back. He refused to accept his fate, yet feared she might marry someone else, so he simply defied the imperial decree and kept her there.

Sang Qingye: "So what if you have to be empress? I'll seize the whole realm, and you can still be empress. How about it?"

Theme: When hardship comes, help each other and make each other stronger.