My Childhood Friend's Older Brother Has Been Coveting Me for Years

In her previous life, Liu Xiyi gave her heart to the wrong person. In the end, she was left with a ruined body,

and her husband held a grudge against her, burning her to death and dying with her.

Meanwhile, the eldest prince Lu Yun, whom she had once framed for harassing his younger brother's wife and disgraced,

rose to power again, killed his father to seize the throne, and ordered the tombs of Prince Rong and his wife to be dug up.

Just as Liu Xiyi thought he was going to whip her corpse to vent his rage,

he ordered them to whip Prince Rong's corpse instead.

With trembling hands, he lifted her into his arms. The dark robe with gold-embroidered cloud patterns brushed the ash from her face.

He rasped, "Xixi, you asked your elder brother to let you have your way, but is this what you wanted?"

Liu Xiyi watched him dress her in an empress's ceremonial robes. Defying the ministers, he bestowed the rites of an empress upon a charred corpse and seated her on the phoenix throne. Palace servants passing outside the hall couldn't help covering their noses with their sleeves.

She remembered that when she'd forced him to withdraw his troops, she'd said that her greatest wish in life was to try being empress once.

She knew that Lu Yun had always treated her like his own younger sister, indulging and cherishing her, and granting her every request.

Reborn, she decided to leave her faithless childhood sweetheart and repay Lu Yun for the dignity he'd given her in her previous life.

Back then, she, Prince Rong, and Lu Yun were all young, and lived together in the central palace.

She and Prince Rong were the beloved treasures of their maternal aunt, the empress, while Lu Yun was merely the son of a bandit's daughter, baseborn and lowly. He could only stay in a dilapidated, leaky side hall in the central palace, wearing patched and mended clothes.

She watched this boy, whom she had never treated well and had only regarded as a pawn. Her eyes quietly reddened as she carefully embroidered a cute rabbit over the hole in his knee and invited him to share the sweet steamed curd she had made herself.

Overwhelmed by the kindness, the boy kept the old trousers she'd embroidered in the bottom of a trunk. A beautiful, handmade wooden box that gave off a foul stench sat on his desk year-round. When opened, it contained the enamel porcelain bowl she always used, decorated with a Magpie Bridge Immortal Crossing design. The contents had gone green and moldy, no longer recognizable.

Extra scene:

"Elder Brother... Your Highness, I may really be leaving this time."

Lu Yun smiled. "Xixi, are you asking your elder brother to come up with another plan to help you coax Third Brother?"

She shook her head. "This time, I'm really leaving. Your Highness, take care."

The smile that had been as gentle as moonlight disappeared from Lu Yun's face.

Later, in the dead of night, he stormed into her bedchamber in bloodstained black robes, holding a severed head. His handsome features bore a look of cruelty and humility.

"Xixi, your elder brother has killed the female assassin who wanted to seduce Third Brother. I'll help you be with him. Won't you come back?"

"Xixi, why don't you call me Elder Brother anymore?"

"Xixi, if you want it, I'll cut out my heart for you..."

Liu Xiyi was so frightened that she spilled her sweet soup, soaking herself in syrup. "B-because I don't want to marry Lu Sheng anymore..."

Lu Yun was at once anxious and at a loss. "Then who do you want to marry? I'll kidnap him for you. If you don't know who you like, I'll kidnap them all."

Terrified that he might actually go and abduct someone, she hurriedly shouted, "You! I mean you..."

Theme: Returning to the beginning.