Return with You

When Xue Rang met Yu Ning, he was a dethroned emperor.

Three months after his coronation, the dynasty's deep-rooted ills had grown impossible to cure, and resentment among the people ran deep. The rebel army swept through the land, broke through the capital, and slaughtered the entire imperial family.

Xue Rang lived worse than the lowliest slave, enduring abuse and barely clinging to life. In the end, he could not escape death.

He was thrown onto a mass grave and left to die in the rain. Soldiers waited in the distance to collect his body once he was dead.

His heart was already dead.

The rain fell without pause. The clear, pleasant sound of a bell drew nearer, and a young woman came lightly stepping along. Her bloodstained silk dress was otherwise spotless. She bent down and held out a hand to him, smiling brightly. "Would you like me to save you?"

Xue Rang thought Yu Ning was beautiful and clever.

A young swordswoman, she led him from a remote village, making plans at every turn, winning people's hearts, and reclaiming half the empire.

And they were in love with each other. Once they succeeded, he would marry her. She would be his empress. She deserved it.

That was only what he thought.

Before they took the capital, the former dynasty's loyalists arrived late. A crowd of old ministers wept before him, and one of them brought forward a gentle young woman, crying out in grief, "Your Majesty, this is my daughter, your betrothed."

She was the daughter of the Shangguan family. Xue Rang remembered that if the kingdom hadn't fallen, he would already have married her.

His trusted advisers urged him to make an alliance with the Shangguan family, the foremost among the former dynasty's loyalists. The Shangguan girl had waited for him for three years, and marrying her was the only way to put the loyalists at ease.

Xue Rang returned to the tent and asked Yu Ning.

She was taken aback, then laughed. She truly didn't mind at all. She simply said, "Sure. Marry her."

His heart tightened. She didn't care about him in the slightest.

Only after he became emperor again did Xue Rang understand why Yu Ning had never been warm toward him or accepted his marriage proposals.

He was nothing but a blade in her hand.

She had only ever used him.

[Blurb first posted on February 28, 2024. Proof of posting saved.]

Reader's guide:

The main story is told from the female protagonist's perspective.

Theme: The nation comes before the family