Reborn as My Nemesis's Bedmate

[The complete story is finished. Go ahead and binge-read it~]

[Coming soon: the historical romance To Become a Bedtime Companion to a Cold and Aloof Deity. Please add it to your collection. The blurb is at the very bottom~]

When the old emperor died, Shen Yingge, a favored consort, was blamed for bringing ruin to the country and sentenced to drink poison.

The man who personally escorted her to her death was Xie Zan, a treacherous minister who held power over the court.

He was famous for his harshness and brutality, ruthless and heartless.

Before Shen Yingge entered the palace, she'd tried every scheme to climb into Xie Zan's good graces. She'd gone to great lengths to get into his bed and seduced him in every way she could, but he remained unmoved and threw her out of the Xie residence.

He was born noble, making her seem so lowly by comparison.

Clinging to what little pride she had left, Shen Yingge gritted her teeth and fought for survival in the palace intrigue, climbing higher step by step.

At last, she became the emperor's favorite. She seized her chance to take revenge and crippled Xie Zan's leg, condemning him to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

She never thought he'd hold on to his grudge until now, determined to kill her.

Well, she had never been a good woman. She'd spent her life selfish and heartless, committing every kind of evil.

Shen Yingge casually poured the poisoned wine onto the ground.

"Poison is such an ugly way to die. Even in death, I want to look beautiful."

She snatched Xie Zan's sword and smiled radiantly.

"If there's another life, I'd rather never see you again and live as a good person. Do you believe me?"

Xie Zan said nothing, but the cold, mocking smile at the corner of his lips answered for him.

He didn't believe her at all.

She smiled, raised the sword, and killed herself before him.

-

Good news: She was reborn.

Bad news: She didn't return to the past. Instead, she woke up as Xie Zan's newly wedded wife.

The original wife was frail and sickly, and rumored to be Xie Zan's moonlight. Shen Yingge was consumed by despair, so she accepted her fate, treated the original wife kindly, and settled down to enjoy the life of a well-to-do married woman.

Until one day, she unexpectedly saw a portrait of herself in Xie Zan's study.

-

Xie Zan was cold and merciless. After the late emperor died, he usurped power from the young emperor, leaving the entire court quaking in fear. People of the time called him a "treacherous minister."

He had once thought that the love and hatred between them would keep them entangled for the rest of their lives.

But when he suddenly looked back, she was no longer there among the lights.

Before she entered the palace, he was loyal and upright.

After she entered the palace, he became a minister for her sake.

Yingge, Yingge. Her name sounded so noisy that at first he found it annoying. Later, though, he realized that when she wasn't making noise, everything felt too quiet.

He had replaced the poisoned wine that was meant to kill her with a cup of sweet water.

She thought he wanted her dead.

In truth, he wanted her to live.

Only Shen Yingge could give him the lively bustle he longed for.

Blurb for To Become a Bedtime Companion to a Cold and Aloof Deity:

[The female lead is the Sun-Patrolling God, who hasn't slept in nine thousand years and suffers from "severe sleep deprivation."]

[The male lead is a lofty deity who gets his sleep stolen every night, but comes to love it before long.]

Tormented by insomnia, Fu Song hadn't had a good night's sleep in nine thousand years.

As the Sun-Patrolling God, she patrolled the mortal realm by day, recording good and evil, protecting the people from demons and monsters, and occasionally escorting lost children home.

When she couldn't sleep at night, she disguised herself as a mortal and went to an all-night tavern to drink and play finger-guessing games with the other night owls.

After daybreak, Fu Song dragged her exhausted yet restless body back out to continue patrolling the mortal world.

Her close friend, the Spring God, worried she would drop dead from exhaustion and offered her some advice. "It's spring. Why not go down to the mortal realm and find yourself a sleeping partner? Have a roll in the hay, get physically intimate, and maybe you'll finally sleep well."

With the desperate, let's-see-if-it-works mindset of a gambler, Fu Song soon fixed her sights on a white-robed gentleman who taught at a Jiangnan academy.

He kept a regular schedule, putting out the lights at the hour of the Dog. He was a lovely sight while asleep, and made not a sound, as still and aloof as an exiled immortal.

The first time she lay beside him, Fu Song tried putting an arm around his waist and nestling her face into the crook of his neck.

She caught the clean, crisp scent on him, and suddenly felt sleepy. Her body seemed to sink into cotton, and the mental pain caused by her insomnia vanished all at once.

Fu Song slept peacefully until dawn.

The Spring God's advice really did work!

From then on, Fu Song often came by at night.

She usually arrived on time, though sometimes she was late by a couple of hours.

When she was late, she assumed the white-robed gentleman would already be asleep, but he would still be reading by lamplight.

By a strange coincidence, as soon as she arrived, he would put out the light.

Fu Song grew uneasy. It was as if he were waiting specifically for her.

But she had clearly hidden her presence. There was no way a mortal could sense her.

She must have been so tired from her daytime duties that she was imagining things!

After they had shared more than a hundred spring nights, Fu Song suddenly felt like finding out what he was like during the day.

To her surprise, she discovered that the white-robed gentleman was close to a young woman.

The young woman brought him lunch during the day. He smiled at her and even gave her an exquisite hairpin.

The woman must be someone he liked.

Fu Song quietly decided it was time to find a new sleeping partner.

-

The deity Zhaoyin descended to the mortal realm on a mission. While undercover, every night after he put out the lights, a woman came to steal his bed.

And she was a member of the Heavenly Court, no less.

She slept like an octopus. Every time he moved her arms and legs away, she wound herself around him again.

One time, she got so persistent that he could take no more and tried to wake her. But in her sleep, she nuzzled into his arms and wept, "Hold me, please..."

Only then did he learn that she suffered not only from insomnia but also from frequent nightmares. A good night's sleep was nothing more than a distant dream for her.

The hand he had raised to shake her awake finally came to rest on her back, becoming a hug of surrender instead.

Just as he was getting used to having her around, she stopped coming.

The deity Zhaoyin waited for her night after night, but she never appeared.

His mission was complete, and she still hadn't shown up.

Only after he heard from the Spring God that Fu Song had found a new sleeping partner...

The usually cool and self-possessed deity Zhaoyin, unmoved by anything, could no longer sit still.

Theme: Seek love and express it