Xue Fu had cloud-dark hair, a slender waist, and a face like a lotus. Her father was a grand secretary, her elder brother a general who campaigned in the north, and her elder sister the empress.
Even the man she married at sixteen, one of her father's students, was young, talented, refined, and handsome.
Everyone said she was lucky, cherished by her whole family and blessed with a smooth life.
At first, Xue Fu thought so too.
Until her sister was deposed and her father and brother were thrown into prison.
Her husband, Lu Xuan, not only escaped the fallout but steadily rose in rank. He climbed to the highest offices on a pile of bones, attaining immense power and glory in just a few short years.
When she suffered a hemorrhage during childbirth, no one was by her bedside. She didn't even get to see her child again before drawing her last breath.
In her dying moments, her life flashed before her eyes. It turned out the love between young spouses was thinner than paper.
Looking back on the first half of her life, Xue Fu realized how laughably foolish she'd been.
If she had another life, she'd make sure that dog of a man lost everything he gained.
·
When she opened her eyes again, she was the daughter of a low-ranking ninth-grade official, forgotten by the world.
She had planned to take her time and plot her revenge, but the empress in the cold palace suddenly fell gravely ill.
The night before entering the palace to help her sister, Xue Fu set a prayer lantern afloat on the Dushui River.
The lantern's silhouette fell just then, amid luxuriant spring blossoms.
The water reflected a man's tall, upright figure, his presence grave and stern.
She heard his voice tremble at the end as he said, "Raise your head."
Xue Fu gave him a graceful curtsy and pretended to ask timidly, "My lord, could I... take leave from tomorrow's palace selection?"
Lu Xuan gazed at her face, so much like his late wife, and looked dazed.
·
Lu Xuan of the Lu clan lost his father young, married at twenty, and was widowed in his prime.
After weathering countless trials, he rose to the highest office.
The rest of his life should have been a smooth and prosperous journey.
Instead, he resolutely raised a knife and severed several of the emperor's fingers.
At that moment, Xue Fu stood expressionless in the shadows behind the screen in the imperial bedchamber.
But she heard the man drop his knife and call out in a choked, quiet voice, "A Fu..."
You are nothing like her, yet everything about you is her. If this is a web you've woven with your own hands, I willingly surrender to it.
1. One-on-one, both leads are sexually inexperienced
2. An unconventional groveling romance
3. Sweet romance
Theme: Live well
