My Mother Is the Chief Councillor's Beloved

Yu Jiashan watched helplessly as her mother, Li Nanfu, lived a life of misery and met an untimely end.

Li Nanfu had been unloved by both her parents since childhood. After marrying, she found herself with a philandering husband who doted on his concubines and neglected his wife. He shut Li Nanfu and her daughter away in a side courtyard, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Even so, Li Nanfu never once complained. She cherished her daughter, Yu Jiashan, like the apple of her eye, protecting her with the utmost care. She taught her to read and write, and to be a good person who understood right from wrong.

In the sixteenth year of the Jincheng era, Li Nanfu fell gravely ill. Just before she passed away, she told her daughter a tremendous secret:

"Go to the capital and find Lu Yuan. He's your real father. Back then, I got pregnant before we were married and lied to him, saying I'd had the baby aborted. That's why he doesn't know you exist."

"He may hate me with all his heart, but he'll surely treat you well."

*

Everyone knew that Lu Yuan, the current Grand Chancellor, came from a lowly background and was ruthless and merciless. He had once been a low-ranking penal soldier on the frontier, but through sheer brilliance and ambition, he had climbed step by step to the very peak of power.

Strangely, he had no interest in women. He was over thirty and had yet to marry or take a concubine.

Rumor had it that as a young man, he had once loved a woman he could never have, his unattainable first love.

It turned out that woman was her mother.

Yu Jiashan wiped away her tears and prepared to leave with her mother's keepsakes to find Lu Yuan, only to be poisoned and killed along the way.

*

When Yu Jiashan woke up, she discovered she had come back to life.

She was lying on a battered bed. A young man stood in the room. His clothes were ragged, his features handsome, and his gaze dark and menacing. The character for "criminal" was tattooed on his forehead. He was a penal soldier.

Someone nearby chuckled. "Well, Lu Yuan, how come this little girl looks like both you and that Miss Li who abandoned you?"

Lu Yuan's eyes reddened. His face set, he said nothing.

Yu Jiashan checked her reflection in a water vat. She still looked as young as she had before she died. Confused, she asked, "What year is it?"

"The first year of the Jincheng era."

Yu Jiashan: !

Good grief, how had she ended up sixteen years in the past?

She looked at Lu Yuan and took a deep breath.

"This might be hard to believe, but I really am your daughter with Miss Li, Dad."

Lu Yuan: ?

*

Li Nanfu sat in her chambers, clutching her belly and weeping.

She and Lu Yuan had already been together as husband and wife, but pressure had forced them apart. She had lied and told him she had aborted the baby, driving him away, but she had kept the child. She was now four or five months along, with a slight bump showing.

But why did her belly feel... flat today?

Her face turned deathly pale as she touched her stomach. "Where is my baby?"

Late that night, Lu Yuan barged into her chambers, his expression complicated. He yanked aside her curtain and grabbed Yu Jiashan by the back of the neck.

"This might be hard to believe, but our child is right here. She's already sixteen."

Li Nanfu: ?

*

P.S.:

1. The female lead travels into the past in her own body. After she goes back, the child in Li Nanfu's belly disappears.

2. Yu Jiashan has her own romance, with the young crown prince.

Theme: Making up for regrets