They Have the Hotel, I Have a Home

Jiang Zhaoyue was the only blemish in Xiao Mingji's reign as a wise ruler. She meddled in government affairs, dominated the imperial harem, seized military power, and even plotted a rebellion with her uncle-in-law while the emperor was away on campaign. Xiao Mingji returned early and caught her in bed with him.

Yet even then, Xiao Mingji did not strip her of her position as empress.

Everyone cursed Jiang Zhaoyue for being ungrateful and heartless, for betraying the emperor's sincere love. But all she wanted to do was spit and say: What do they know about her suffering? Could a man like Xiao Mingji really have a sincere heart?

Reborn, all she wanted was to sever this ill-fated bond. But she returned at the wrong time: she was already betrothed to Xiao Mingji.

So she behaved outrageously, consorted with handsome men, and deliberately ruined her own reputation.

Given how old-fashioned Xiao Mingji was, he should have been utterly disgusted with her.

Instead, beneath the moon among the flowers, with bamboo shadows swaying, Xiao Mingji solemnly told her, "You don't need to say anything more. I know everything."

"That boy Yun Kai must have seduced you, right?"

Xiao Yunkai, Xiao Mingji's younger brother, was also the man Jiang Zhaoyue had been caught in bed with in her previous life.

Hearing his certainty and seeing that he showed no hint of blame, Jiang Zhaoyue asked in a daze, "So?"

"So I think we should hurry up and get married. Two children in three years, and then he'll finally give up."

Jiang Zhaoyue: What???

No, something was definitely wrong. Things weren't supposed to go this way!

She tried to struggle, to set everything back on track. "But you know I've had so many... um... close male friends."

His warm, broad hand covered hers, enveloping it tightly. Xiao Mingji's voice softened further. "It's all right. I know."

"They're just inns. I'm your home."

He was the peerless sage ruler who drove the Xiongnu north and the Baiyue south, moved the capital, reformed the system, transformed the government, and ruled with uprightness and discipline.

Xiao Mingji knew it was all a facade.

In his heart dwelled boundless darkness, a twisted and sinister version of himself. He had always held it in, believing it would never be discovered.

She poisoned him, and he pretended not to know. She plotted rebellion, and he could still tolerate it.

Only when her loosened sash wound around his younger brother's arm that year did he fail, for the first time, to maintain his perfect mask.

Reborn, he steeled himself and warned himself that if she treated him that way again, he would lock her away in a golden cage.

He would make her eat only the food he cooked, stand on the floors he mopped, wear the clothes he washed, and let him carry her wherever she went.

Then he would take aphrodisiacs and show her what he could do in front of a mirror.

If she tried to run, he would make sure she saw whether the sunset or his blood was redder (^v^).

Theme: Do your share of the housework and build a harmonious modern family