Reborn Before She Breaks My Blade

[Updated at 9 p.m. on alternate days when ranked. Sincerely asking for bookmarks | @Jinjiang Yulong Manyan]

For her: "Pull out all the stops to win over the emotionally unavailable man."

For him: "Saving a hopeless romantic cannot wait."

| Both reborn | The heroine has no memories of her past life at first | Pretends to be a flirtatious temptress * aloof beauty | Love triangle |

In her previous life, Yu Yaoyao sacrificed the future of the man she could never have to love, and personally pushed Pei Xiu, the most rebellious and brilliant young master of the capital, into the abyss.

*

The scene on the palace path, at the moment his soul left his body, remained vivid in his mind. Pei Xiu would not let this life end the same way.

Back in the fourteenth year of Chengping, his body had yet to finish growing, but his heart was already weighed down with the weariness of age.

Pei Xiu vowed never to cross paths again with the poisonous beauty whose name he had never learned in his previous life.

He remembered her clearly: she wore a water-red dress.

He would leave the capital, give up being the young master of the Chief Minister's household, forgo the top place in the imperial examinations, and give his father no grounds for criticism.

He traveled thousands of miles south and secluded himself in the mountains beside the Fuchun River, content to live as a carefree immortal.

In his spare time, he taught the village children music, chess, poetry, and books.

The villagers respectfully called him "Master Pei," while the young ladies of the village dreamed of his refined, handsome face.

Who would have thought that the "vixen" would still come after him?

He treated her coldly, tripped her up, insulted her, and tried to flee, yet somehow he could never avoid her.

She kept offering warmth to his cold shoulder. Seeing that he was a stubborn block of wood who wouldn't budge and only caused her needless heartache, she turned instead to his close friend, appearing everywhere with him and looking perfectly at ease.

Only then did Pei Xiu realize that he was troubled by it.

*

Yu Yaoyao deliberately approached Pei Xiu, who sat at the qin table, when her cousin Wen Zhiqiao from the Loyal and Diligent Marquis's household and an envoy from the Eastern Palace were present.

In a blazing red dress, she tested him, tempted him, and kissed him.

Pei Xiu did not pull away. He even shot Wen Zhiqiao, who was spying from outside the doorway, a dagger-like glance.

He carried himself like a man who had everything to gain. For a moment, it was as if the audacious young Master Pei from their previous life had returned.

Afterward, the woman naively claimed that it had nothing to do with romance. She had only wanted to avoid an unwanted marriage into a higher-ranking family, and had been willing to ruin a woman's most precious asset, her reputation, to do so.

She hoped that he, her "teacher," a man who was supposed to set an example, would help his student get out of this predicament.

Pei Xiu felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss. This woman had hurt him again.

Later, he broke his vow and returned to the capital alone. For his family, now in danger, and for the ideals of the upright officials, he truly became the scholar who topped the imperial examinations, a dream match for the young ladies of the village.

He asked himself honestly: his reasons for returning to the capital were not entirely pure.

*

But one day, Yu Yaoyao, now Crown Princess, dozed alone in the Eastern Palace and remembered: she had once held a blade in her hand, blood dripping from it without end.

She looked at the summoned musician, Pei, a descendant of convicted officials, playing the qin for her beneath the steps. When he was cold toward her, he could go a whole day without saying a word.

His eyes were like a deep spring. He suddenly looked up. "Do you remember now? Your cousin Wen, the commander, cast you aside and went on to rise to great heights, with jade pendants and gold-lined robes."

"...Will you still not look at me?"

[Bonus Scene]

Yu Yaoyao: I think your friend is a fine choice. He has a distinguished family background and a fortune, and his mother is easy to get along with. He'd be the perfect father for my future child.

Pei Xiu: I came first in the imperial examinations in my previous life. My intelligence isn't the problem.

* The male lead has never been in a relationship and is waiting for a love that feels like a "home invasion."

* The Crown Prince is not the second male lead. The second male lead is the cousin.

* It really is a sweet romance (maybe).

* Warning: the author tends to turn things into serious historical drama.

* After being reborn, the heroine temporarily has no memories of what happened later in her previous life.

[Reading Guide]

1. Important: both leads are virgins. I hope to write this with a relaxed tone.

2. Set in an alternate world. Don't read too much into it.

3. Inspired by Huang Gongwang's Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, though this unrefined story can't match the master's artistic vision. Don't read too much into it.

4. Happy ending.

Theme: Love yourself before loving someone else.