The Startling Breath of Spring

Coming soon: Becoming the Crown Prince's Stepmother. Please add it to your library! (Synopsis below or visit the author's page.)

[Jade-like beauty and gloomy heir]

On the day Yan Xizhao married Pei Zhuyi, he launched a rebellion.

The Crown Prince stormed the Marquis's residence with his men and took Yan Xizhao hostage, hoping to force Pei Zhuyi to stop.

Watching the man approach with a blade in hand, Yan Xizhao knew at a glance that he wouldn't stop.

An attendant brought him a bow and arrows. Pei Zhuyi nocked an arrow and drew the bowstring. “A Zhao, once my revenge is complete, I'll come join you.”

The arrow cut through the night, piercing Yan Xizhao and the Crown Prince together.

Blood welled from her chest, blending with the bright red of her wedding dress.

As consciousness faded, she saw Pei Zhuyi pull her into his arms. “Don't be afraid. Wait for me.”

When Yan Xizhao opened her eyes, she had returned to the year she was fifteen.

Beneath a wall covered in trumpet creepers was her first meeting with Pei Zhuyi.

That day, their elders would arrange their engagement.

Remembering how things had ended in her previous life, Yan Xizhao wanted to sever her ties with him in this one.

She went to great lengths to avoid every occasion when she might run into Pei Zhuyi, as she remembered them, and politely declined her family's suggestion that they arrange an engagement between the two of them.

But the more she tried to avoid him, the less she could.

Caught in a downpour, they were stranded together in a pavilion.

Seeing Yan Xizhao shivering, Pei Zhuyi took off his outer robe to cover her, but she dodged it.

Pei Zhuyi's hand stopped in midair. “Do you hate me?”

Amid the pounding rain, he heard her answer: “Yes.”

“I hate you.”

Pei Zhuyi couldn't understand why Yan Xizhao hated him. They had never had any quarrel.

He tried to ignore her, but his gaze kept lingering on her. Seeing her laughing and chatting with others only irritated him, filling him with resentment and bitterness.

In a daze, he felt that he should have been the one receiving that warmth.

Until one night, Pei Zhuyi remembered his previous life, and the arrow he had shot at her.

* One-on-one romance, both leads' first sexual partners, same age

* The female lead is reborn. The male lead gradually remembers their previous life. The male lead will pursue her after hurting her.

* The female lead's first meeting with the male lead mentioned in the synopsis is not the male lead's first meeting with her. He saw her long before that.

* The male lead's actions in Chapter One will be explained later in the story.

* More than one man falls for the female lead, leading to a rivalry between the male lead and the second male lead.

Coming soon: Becoming the Crown Prince's Stepmother

Yun Ningqiu was born into a distinguished family. Her grandfather served as a grand minister under three emperors, and her father was the current prime minister. She and the Crown Prince grew up together, and their marriage seemed destined to be a perfect match.

In the height of spring, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau determined that Yun Ningqiu had a rare destiny and could bring prosperity to the Great Liang dynasty.

Emperor Jing ignored the objections of his ministers and decreed that Yun Ningqiu enter the palace as a consort. Within a year, he made her empress.

Three years later, Emperor Jing died of illness. At just twenty-two, Yun Ningqiu became the Empress Dowager, the most powerful woman in all of Great Liang.

-

Xiao Chen had known Yun Ningqiu since childhood. They grew up together, and he had thought she was destined to become his Crown Princess. But his father intervened, and the woman he had always longed for became his mother.

Xiao Chen was furious.

At last, he managed to wait for his father to die, only to find the woman surrounded by suitors. Today it was a gentle new top scholar, tomorrow a dashing young general from a military family. One day it was a pretty young eunuch, another day a modest and composed tutor...

Night after night, Xiao Chen couldn't sleep. He did everything he could to put an end to the woman's romances, while gritting his teeth and pretending not to care in front of her.

Until one day, he discovered that his elder brother, Prince Rui, had entered Yun Ningqiu's Xiangning Palace.

Furious and with a splitting headache, Xiao Chen stormed into Xiangning Palace and snapped, “Every day, it's one man or another!”

“What do they have that I don't? Why can't you see me?!”

* The female lead is not a virgin. Except for Emperor Jing, all the male characters are virgins. Relationships develop in stages, and everything that is meant to happen will happen. Xiao Chen is ultimately the male lead.

* The male lead appears calm and composed, but in reality he's a lunatic who drinks jealousy like water.

* The female lead is initially conflicted and resentful about love, but eventually comes to understand that loving herself matters most.

Theme: Live well.