Folding the Crane

Song Jin'an once saw a crane, proud and cold as autumn frost, in the mire. It was Xie Yanshu, living under another family's roof. She pitied him and protected him.

Yet the crane watched coldly as the Song family fell.

Later, the first client Song Jin'an received at the music academy was Xie Yanshu. The lonely crane of old had become a powerful minister, so influential that everyone sought his favor.

He said, "This is what the Song family owes me."

In the third year of the Yuantai era, Song Jin'an died with her unborn child on the night of Xie Yanshu's wedding, nothing more than a nameless concubine.

In the seventh year of Yuantai, the once-peerless eldest daughter of the Song family opened her eyes in the body of Song Wu.

On the day she was ennobled for her contributions to designing firearms, Marquis Yan took her hand and pleaded with the emperor to grant them marriage.

In the crowd, the usually heartless Xie Yanshu broke his wings, yet could not make the girl who had once raised a crane look back at him.

Everyone said that Chief Minister Xie, the cold-faced King of Hell, loved his son more than life itself, and granted every wish the young Master Xie made.

No one knew that the boy's birth mother was the woman Xie Yanshu regretted losing for the rest of his life, the moonlight he could never catch.

Song's father had caused his parents' deaths, and the Song household had humiliated his proud spirit. Yet amid that filthy mire, one person had reached out and helped him climb. She was brighter than the moon, his most secret longing.

The day he feigned marriage to wipe out the rebels, Song Jin'an, who had always been afraid of the cold, died in the depths of winter. Of their twins, only a boy born frail survived.

In the fourth year of Yuantai, Chief Minister Xie held a wedding tablet as he bowed through the ceremony, kneeling before every Buddha and begging for a miracle.

In the seventh year of Yuantai, his dream came true: he saw someone from his past in a stranger.

On a night of torrential rain, he frantically held the young woman in her wedding robes, but the girl who had once been so gentle only smiled at him with distant politeness.

"Xie Yanshu, I once made a wish before the Buddha too: that we would remain strangers for all our lives."

(Reader's guide:

1. Very melodramatic, with an old-school groveling redemption arc.

2. The male lead is not the enemy who wiped out the female lead's family. Someone else is behind the case involving her family.

3. The redemption arc gets going in the middle of the story. The male lead's physical suffering begins in the middle-to-late portion.

4. The daughter is not dead!

5. Happy ending.

6. The reason this is tagged as rebirth rather than transmigration will be explained later.

7. The dynasty is entirely fictional, the political intrigue is simple, and the romance is the main focus.

"Betray Your Wife, Then Beg for Her Back" is now ongoing.

(Forced possession + groveling redemption arc)

Also known as: Can I Take It Back After Mistaking You for My Husband?

The Wen family had served as imperial astronomers for generations. The royal family of Daxia treated them as honored guests and personally designated Wen Jiuning as the crown princess.

But Daxia's fortunes were waning, the position of empress was vacant, the crown prince had gone missing, and wars raged in the south. Wen Jiuning's father was an utter coward, ready to bend whichever way the wind blew. The moment he heard that the rebel army was heading north, he hurried off with his wife and children.

Wen Jiuning stared silently at the deserted Bureau of Astronomy.

She remembered a divination her grandfather had left behind before his death. It said that the missing crown prince of Daxia, gone for ten years, was born under the Purple Star. Whether for the fate of Daxia or to honor the marriage pact made by their ancestors, Wen Jiuning had to find the crown prince.

Clutching the birth details her grandfather had left her, she headed south with her luggage to search for him. At last, she found a young man whose birth details matched. But the person before her did not seem much like the gentle, courteous young man in her memories.

This fiancé of hers would give her gloomy, mocking smiles and threaten to have her head chopped off at the slightest provocation. Apart from being exceptionally handsome, he was nothing like a suitable match for her.

Wen Jiuning held her pretty face stiffly for a moment, then stepped forward with determination. "Greetings, my lord. I am your betrothed. Come back to Chang'an with me and marry me."

The rebels exchanged glances as their bloodstained leader smiled ominously. "Are you sure you want me to go to Chang'an with you?"

At first, Yue Chuyu found it amusing when he learned that Wen Jiuning had mistaken him for someone else. He deliberately toyed with the so-called crown princess of Daxia, as if she were a cat.

Later, night after night, he went mad with jealousy over the former crown prince, whose birth details matched his own.

Unfortunately, he could not keep the secret forever. His A Ning pointed a knife at him and risked her life to escape his side.

In Chang'an, corpses floated for miles. Yue Chuyu licked the blood from the corner of his lips and slowly reached out, looking every bit like a demon from hell. "A Ning, after we've been through the wedding ceremony, are you still thinking of going back on your word?"

A doomed relationship is still a relationship. From one end of the world to the other, you and I are the perfect match.

Theme: Love yourself well.