The Lord's Attendant

In the third year of the Yuan calendar, Northern Yan conquered Chu. The Chu emperor breathed his last and died in the west.

In a single night, the royal family, aristocrats, and common people of Chu all became prisoners of Northern Yan.

Chu Rong, famed throughout the four kingdoms, was among them.

Chu Rong was born to a noble family. They said he had jade-like features and crimson lips, unmatched beauty, and peerless talent for governing.

The new ruler of Northern Yan, Xie Xuan, was violent, cruel, and murderous. The people couldn't help but lament Chu Rong's fate at the hands of such a tyrant.

Judging by the Yan Emperor's usual behavior, he should have humiliated and tortured Chu Rong, flayed him, pulled out his tendons, then cut off his head and hung it on the city wall for three days and three nights.

But...

A day passed, and nothing happened...

A month passed, and nothing happened...

A year passed, and Chu Rong was still alive and well.

Outsiders assumed that everyone in the Yan palace bullied Chu Rong and treated him with contempt. They didn't know that the lord of Lanchi Palace wouldn't even give the emperor a pleasant look. The emperor didn't mind at all, and still went to see that cold face every day after court, come rain or shine.

Until their scandalous affair became the talk of the city, the imperial tomb collapsed, and an ominous star appeared in the sky. Chu Rong was said to have bewitched the ruler, and everyone called for his death.

People mocked and belittled Chu Rong, saying, "Chu Rong's slender waist and cloudlike hair, in a hibiscus-draped bed, the dragon frolics beneath the palace beams tonight."

The Yan Emperor killed scholars and purged his ministers for Chu Rong, unafraid to set himself against the world. But in the end, Chu Rong pierced his heart with an arrow and left without mercy.

When the two men who had once spent day and night entangled in the palace met again,

one stood on the city wall, cold and merciless, while the other stood outside the city with his army, consumed by hatred.

Xie Xuan gritted his teeth and swore that if he caught Chu Rong this time, he would break his hands and feet so he could never leave again.

A sharp-tongued, calculating beauty shou who lost his country vs. a brooding, irritable emperor gong with overwhelming possessiveness

I want him to be worshipped by every official and revered by all the people, to ascend the throne and leave his name in history for all time.

* This is an alternate history setting, so please don't scrutinize it too closely. New chapters every night at nine.

Please add my novel, "Reborn as a Sickly, Universally Adored Heartthrob," to your reading list!

When Ni Xueqiong was eight, he fell gravely ill. His father searched everywhere for renowned doctors but found no cure. Just as the boy was on the verge of death, a Taoist passing through the area saved him.

The Taoist said the boy was frail and sickly, and destined for misfortune. The only way to break the curse was to find someone born on the same day, in the same month, and in the same year, and have them stay by his side to ward off calamity and evil.

As it happened, a kitchen hand in the household named Xinu shared Xueqiong's birth date.

Ni's father adopted him as his son, giving him the title of Second Young Master of the Ni household so he could stay by Xueqiong's side.

Xinu returned to his birth name, Helan Xi. For ten years, he cared for Xueqiong devotedly, granting his every wish and fulfilling his duties to the letter.

After the Ni household was executed and confiscated, the two fled the capital and wandered from place to place.

That night, the two boys who depended on each other got married in a dilapidated Guanyin temple, exchanging vows and promising themselves to each other.

When the soldiers broke into their home, Xueqiong was kicked to the ground, battered and bleeding from the mouth.

The young man who was usually gentle as water, smiling as he kissed him, stood nearby and coldly watched his humiliation.

Only then did Xueqiong realize that Helan Xi had merely been using him.

Xueqiong was thrown into prison and nearly died of illness in his cell.

At the same time, Helan Xi passed the highest imperial examination and was appointed chancellor.

The young top scholar, dressed in crimson robes and a jade belt, rode a white horse with golden trappings. Flower branches and handkerchiefs tossed down from the balconies covered the ground, while the clamor of gongs, drums, and cheering continued for ten miles.

Wearing prison clothes, Xueqiong was escorted into the chancellor's residence, where he cursed the handsome and aloof Chancellor He as a despicable slave, basking in his glory.

He hated Helan Xi, hated his treacherous ambition and faithlessness, and wanted to flay him, tear out his tendons, and drink his blood and eat his flesh.

Reborn into another life, when Helan Xi knelt before him like a prisoner, battered and broken,

there was no longer a noble and virtuous Chancellor He, only Xinu, fallen into the dust and begging him for mercy.

*

Helan Xi was born into poverty and was cold by nature.

That year, the Taoist asked if he was willing to stay by Xueqiong's side for the rest of his life, to accompany and protect him.

He agreed without really understanding.

He didn't know then that he would pay for those words with his entire life.

The Buddha says greed, hatred, and delusion are the three poisons of life.

Had he awakened sooner, he might have avoided ending as nothing but bones in the earth, his blood and tears shed across two lifetimes.

[The spirit drifts away, but this sorrow will never end]

A gentle, sinister gong vs. a reborn, corrupted shou

Content warnings: dark, melodramatic angst, physical and emotional abuse, shou suffers first, then gong, and the gong's redemption arc is intense

Theme: Hard work makes dreams come true.