The Emperor and Empress Are Made for Each Other

*A chaotic contest for the heroine's favor, a dangerous harem showdown, and a bewitching, wicked cat of a heroine. “I didn't want to rebel either, but my wife said she wanted to be empress.”* Song Fuke was born lowly, her life as cheap as grass, and she wasn't exactly virtuous. The only words she remembered clearly were her mother's instructions to go out and make a good life for herself. Later, her mother died, and Song Fuke entered the palace. After saving the Crown Prince, she rose to the top, going from palace maid to princess. She discovered the sweetness of power. Looking at the trust and dependence in the Crown Prince's eyes, she had just one thought: She wanted a good life. She wanted to hold tightly to the one support she had, enjoy wealth and splendor from then on, and never again be trampled underfoot. So even later, when the Crown Prince stormed into her palace with a sword and dragged her into his arms, one hand cupping her delicate, pale face as he gently coaxed her with obsessive tenderness, “Elder Sister, marry your younger brother and become empress one day,” Song Fuke agreed. Then the very next day, she secretly met with Duan Yunxiao and broke things off with him. Duan Yunxiao had come from a background of street thugs and was vicious to the core, though he pretended to be open and honest. He had clawed his way through heaps of corpses on the battlefield in Beizhou for years before returning to the capital as a general. His prospects were bright and his future promising, but compared to the heir to the throne, he still fell short. Song Fuke told him plainly, “Duan Yunxiao, you can't blame me. I can't help it. I want to be empress.” Duan Yunxiao raised his dark brows slightly. He listened, then smiled faintly. His hand gripped the dagger tucked behind him, and his keen, wolf-like eyes glinted. His tone was understanding. “Oh, you want to be empress that badly? I understand. It's only human nature.” And so Duan Yunxiao pursued power and rank, working day and night. He fought his way to the throne, cut down the emperor, and brought the head, along with a gorgeous peach blossom, before Song Fuke. In return, she slapped him twice across the face, leaving two vivid red handprints. The people around them knelt, not daring to speak, as they watched the new emperor beam with delight and bend over his desk to write the edict naming her empress. “Want to be empress?” The emperor, his hands stained with blood and his throne won through slaughter, recalled the past, smiled, and swept his brush across the page to write Song Fuke's name. “The Empress and I were made for each other.” A little scene: The night before Duan Yunxiao ascended the throne, Song Fuke suddenly fell seriously ill for no apparent reason. Burning with fever and barely conscious, she was wrapped tightly in a quilt and held in Duan Yunxiao's arms. She mumbled, “Duan Yunxiao, I'm going to die.” Duan Yunxiao hated hearing her speak of leaving him. He bent down to kiss her burning cheek and promised over and over, “No, you won't. You won't die.” By the time dawn broke, Song Fuke had fallen asleep, and the court officials had been waiting outside for a long time. Duan Yunxiao got up and went into the courtyard to ask the imperial physicians, but he still wasn't reassured. Then he remembered that when he was a child, if a neighbor's child got sick, their parents would pour the herbal medicine dregs onto the road and let carriages trample them, carrying the illness away. So he scattered the medicine dregs along the corridor and walked back and forth over them, while the assembled officials watched in shocked silence. As he walked, he wondered: Had the weight of all his killings injured Song Fuke? Heaven was blind. If her illness came from the sins he had committed, why should Song Fuke have to suffer for them? Let the retribution come to him instead. If it wasn't because of his sins, then why should Song Fuke have to suffer? Let the sickness and pain come to him instead. All he wanted was for Song Fuke to spend the rest of her life happy and safe, and never be sad again. Reader's guide (please read): 1. For the first two chapters, she's a poor stray cat. After that, the cat's fortunes will rise quickly. 2. The heroine is a wicked tabby-cat type, completely self-serving. 3. There are four male contenders early on, all competing for her. The men are all faithful. 4. There will be some coercive romance later. 5. This is an imaginary setting, and the author has little knowledge of ancient history. I'm very sensitive, extremely sensitive, so please don't hurt me, lovely readers. If you drop the novel, you don't need to tell me. [Synopsis written on September 11, 2024, and revised on July 12, 2026. Copies have been saved in emails and shared with my writing friends.] Theme: Take control of your own fate.