【First published on Jinjiang Literature City. Thank you for supporting the official release.】
As the ruler of all Cangzhou, Cang Shu He had occupied the highest position for a long time.
For various reasons, she created two avatars, one male and one female, named Ning Bai Gui and Wu Yue Qu. But before she could send them out, she caught a glimpse of their lives. Pretending to be husband and wife, one working in the open and the other in secret, they made progress in the investigation she had wanted to conduct. Even so, Cang Shu He found their lives growing dull.
Then a man once defeated by her male avatar did something entirely unlike his past self: he proposed to her female avatar.
So she decided to send her female avatar over to take a look.
No, she would go herself.
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Xi Huai Zhao, the Yuanzhou ruler whose name was synonymous with genius, could not understand how he, the head of a great sect, had lost to Ning Bai Gui, a mere orphan, and even suffered such humiliation.
The first thing he did after being reborn was vow to grind Ning Bai Gui's bones to dust. But no matter how hard he searched, he could not find him.
He remembered the scene before his death, and the woman who had always stood behind Ning Bai Gui: Wu Yue Qu, Ning Bai Gui's beloved wife, a woman famed for her literary talent and praised by all.
Xi Huai Zhao knew nothing of love, but that did not stop him from stealing Ning Bai Gui's wife.
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Xi Huai Zhao's parents were a miserable couple. The “love” between such a pair was always sharp and full of resentment. He was the perfect pawn in their game of “love,” and many of his actions were shaped by the rules of conduct they had branded into him.
Those rules left no room for love, nor was there anyone who could teach him to understand it and free him from his fear of it.
Being defeated and scorned by Ning Bai Gui, trampled on his code of conduct.
Taking another man's wife was revenge, and it crossed a line, but Xi Huai Zhao had no regrets.
But he never expected Wu Yue Qu to be exactly the kind of person he was least equipped to handle. She was cheerful and vivacious, generous toward others, and free-spirited yet always knew where to draw the line. Her talent was second to none, and her dark eyes seemed able to see into everyone's heart, including his.
Everything he did around Wu Yue Qu was on a whim. He never expected her words to make his heart race, or one small gesture from her to leave him so flustered that he tried to run away...
Even his reason for marrying her became the source of a jealousy that gnawed at him to the bone.
He wanted her eyes to be filled with his image. He wanted her to stop looking at Ning Bai Gui. He wanted to see her more, to be close to her... These desires broke his code of conduct. This was what love was.
He wanted to confess his feelings, but before he could speak, she had already died.
A marriage stolen from another man had brought him such unbearable anguish.
In his despair, he heard that the ruler of Cangzhou, the most powerful person in the world, possessed a way to bring the dead back to life. He set out to seek an audience, ready to pay any price if only Yue Qu could be saved.
After a long and winding journey, he happened upon a fragmentary portrait of the ruler of Cangzhou. An incredible possibility drove him to hurry thousands of miles back to Yuanzhou, just to open a coffin and confirm it, though he already knew the answer in his heart.
How could he face her? Standing in the resplendent palace hall, he looked up and saw the person seated above him smiling as if she knew everything.
He wanted to kill her.
At the banquet, he had long dreamed of being by her side. Surely her kindness to him meant there was at least a little sincerity in it. But when he looked up, he saw that she was surrounded by countless outstanding young men, all favored by heaven, and no shortage of so-called true affection.
He wanted to kill her.
He had never imagined that one day he would put aside all his pride and beg for her attention.
Later, he discovered that Ning Bai Gui was also her...
*
Cang Shu He had always known what she wanted. So when Xi Huai Zhao's behavior increasingly matched her expectations, and he wore an expression of unbearable agony in the palace, she smiled with unrestrained arrogance.
“I can offer you a place by my side. But what will you give me in return?”
【A story of careful planning and unifying the world.】
(Blurb written on 2025.2.14, revised on 2026.1.17)
Bonus scene:
One day, a servant came to report.
“My lord, the young masters are fighting over who gets to serve you tea today!”
Cang Shu He said nothing.
The servant lowered his eyes and asked curiously, “My lord, why do you never stop them?”
Cang Shu He looked at him. “I am the ruler of Cangzhou.”
“I am the greatest person in the world.”
She smiled faintly. “Isn't it only natural for them to get jealous over me?”
Reader's Guide:
1. The heroine's surname is Cang Shu, and her given name is He. This is a story that exists because of her.
2. No shipping the men together. The writing will use some oblique storytelling. There will be some behind-the-scenes scheming involving faked deaths, and given her character, the heroine will never make herself suffer.
3. This is a self-indulgent passion project. See the author's note in Chapter 1 for more details about the reader's guide.
4. The blurb does not reveal everything.
5. This is not traditional cultivation fiction and follows my own style. Please don't overanalyze it. There is a slight ensemble cast.
6. The strongest is the strongest. The heroine will never be weaker than anyone else.
7. Neither the heroine nor the hero is perfect.
8. Includes male characters suffering, to an unspecified degree. May include an uncle and sister-in-law, childhood friends, and similar dynamics, all as one-sided feelings.
Theme: Striving ever onward
