Reborn as the Demon Queen

After being reborn, Xiao Yunqi went from being the demon empress accused of “purging the court” back to the innocent, spoiled sixteen-year-old girl she once was.

To avoid the same fate as her previous life, when she was poisoned to death in the Hall of Sacred Audience, Xiao Yunqi planned to leave the imperial capital.

At the empress dowager’s urging, she traveled with the Prince of Changling, who in her previous life had failed to marry her and instead become her younger uncle by marriage.

From the imperial capital, where blades flashed and shadows danced, to the arduous road through Shu, as difficult as climbing to the sky.

Over the course of two years, Xiao Yunqi witnessed the hardships of ordinary people and saw those driven from their homes.

In her previous life, she had resorted to every means to advance her own interests, committing countless wrongs.

She thought that she must have been given another life so she could atone for her sins.

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When Northern Liang invaded, the Duke of State-Assisting returned victorious, his power towering.

To prevent the Prince of Changling and the Duke from joining forces to seize the throne, Emperor Zhou Lang drugged Xiao Yunqi and set a trap for her.

Drugged, Xiao Yunqi had no interest in Zhou Lang, who had fled like a stray dog when his country fell in her previous life. Instead, she randomly grabbed a handsome, broad-shouldered man with a narrow waist and spent a night with him.

Only after the drug wore off and she regained her senses did she realize that the man lying beside her was the great enemy she had once faced in court.

He was also the man who had joined forces with the Marquis of Yongyi’s household to invade the palace in the name of “purging the court” in her previous life.

Xiao Yunqi thought it over, then decided to kill him and eliminate the threat once and for all.

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Yan Sui had only gone to the temple to burn incense, but was forced to spend a night with someone.

He remembered this woman. She was the Duke of State-Assisting’s legitimate daughter, a famously spoiled and domineering young lady in the capital.

An imperial decree from the palace, conferring the title of Consort Shu, arrived at the Duke of State-Assisting’s residence.

Everyone in Jinling was saying that the duke’s daughter had used underhanded tactics while the emperor was praying at Qingmiao Temple.

Yan Sui: “...”

A complicated mood.

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On the day the capital fell, Xiao Yunqi sat outside the Hall of Sacred Audience for a long time, watching clumsy swallows return to their nests.

She thought back over her life, from a spoiled, innocent girl who knew nothing of the world to the disastrous demon empress now accused of “purging the court.”

If she could live again, would she take an entirely different path?

Given another life, Xiao Yunqi had her answer: No.

Even if she could live again, she would still want the wind, the rain, and the empire.

Note:

The final line of the blurb is taken from the internet.

The heroine was a true villainess in her previous life and isn’t especially kind after being reborn.

To avoid historical nitpicking, this is an alternate history.

Theme: One must atone for one’s mistakes.