He Went Mad After I Abandoned the Brooding Heir

[A pampered but resilient young lady fallen on hard times × a smiling, scheming, unhinged heir to a noble house]

[Next novel: "Your Highness, Borrow a Flower and Go See the Mountain," a similar story featuring possessive pursuit and a regretful ex winning her back, a frontier eagle × a pampered flower of the imperial palace. Blurb at the very bottom.]

[In my collection: "Spring Courtyard's Tempting Beauty," a pseudo-incestuous, possessive coming-of-age romance, a noble and virtuous lord × a delicate femme fatale. A lofty flower descends from its pedestal. Don't miss it!]

In the spring of the twenty-fourth year of the Shuo Ning era, the Duke of Zhenguo's warhorses galloped down West Straight Street in Chang'an, where the Ten-Mile Red Bridal Procession was underway, drawing the attention of officials and ladies all around.

The grim, silent soldiers had come for one purpose alone: to steal a bride.

To steal the bride of the General of Zhennan.

In the bright-red bridal carriage, the bride wore her hair in a high, elaborate coiffure, her beauty radiant enough to outshine everything. After protecting every servant in the general's residence, she calmly stepped forward and slapped the most powerful minister in the Liang Dynasty across the face.

Gu Junyu wiped away the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth and smiled, his beauty dazzling. His eyes darkened as he swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the Flower-Blooming Hall.

Once again, he imprisoned her in his gilded palace.

"Yingniang, has Young Master Shen tasted you like this too?"

In the Flower-Blooming Hall, the young woman's eyes were wet and red, and her skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat. Her fragrant breaths came in gasps, and her words faltered.

Everyone knew that the Regent had torn apart a couple and abducted his minister's wife, imprisoning the woman, soft as a spring willow, in his palace to keep her as a pampered beauty.

Only Bai Chiying, forced to lean in his sandalwood-scented embrace, gave a self-mocking smile.

At that old temple in Luoyang, he had used honeyed words and elaborate schemes to offer her to bandits in exchange for leverage to retrieve an old letter.

And he was the one who had said, "I do like her. I only like her."

So what was wrong with her not wanting him anymore, with her no longer loving him?

So, amid a pretense of tenderness, she drove a dagger into his chest.

"Gu Junyu, I will kill you."

She meant what she said. She never broke a promise.

*

That year beneath the Luoyang moon, the young woman had said with shining eyes that, in all the world, she would be the one to bring him the greatest happiness.

But Gu Junyu had always known that he was no treasured phoenix of the Liang Dynasty. He was a rotten man who had crawled back from the halls of the dead, the least deserving man in the world of love.

He traded the young woman's ardent heart for three letters. Though the pain was like having his heart carved out and his bones stripped bare, he still turned away beneath her desperate, hate-filled gaze.

He thought it was nothing more than one ordinary move in his countless schemes.

Only later, when she thrust a dagger into his chest with her own hands, did Gu Junyu remember: the woman he had pushed away was the wife he had traded everything to the gods of the nine heavens to bring back to him.

*

In the dead of winter in the sixth year of the Yuanshi era, snow fell without pause for three days at a mountain temple outside the capital, Chang'an.

The Emperor died at Shanyin Temple outside the capital, leaving behind only thirty thousand words of a blood-written scripture. No one could tell what it asked for or what it prayed for.

"He taught me to put aside my grudges, quell my anger, renew myself, and change my ways. Let go of the waters that have passed, turn back from the sea of suffering, and awaken to the bond we once shared."

[Both leads are reborn. The male lead regains his memories later, then pursues his wife through fire and water. The female lead believes that if her beloved has no love for her, then she should leave. The leads are devoted to each other in body and heart, and get a happy ending.]

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[Next novel: "Your Highness, Borrow a Flower and Go See the Mountain," a possessive pursuit and regretful ex story, a frontier eagle × a pampered flower of the imperial palace]

Everyone knew that Princess Miaoyi, Cui Yunzhi, was radiant and exceptionally beautiful, a treasured daughter doted on by Emperor Chen and showered with boundless affection.

In the twelfth year of the Xiusui era, a military revolt broke out in Jingzhou and the imperial capital fell. The royal family fled south in disarray, shocking the realm.

Amid the clamor of armor, just before Cui Yunzhi could kill herself to preserve her dignity, a gleaming silver-feathered arrow shot through the air and pierced the rebel leader's head.

The young man was handsome as a piece of black jade from a lonely mountain, with a noble, lofty bearing and eyes more fierce and arrogant than a hawk's.

Cui Yunzhi was terrified. To survive, she bit her red lips and wrapped her arms around his neck.

The young man gave an amused, surprised laugh and lifted her up with one arm, rescuing her from the dim palace hall.

He was like a hero who had come racing through wind and rain.

Only later did Cui Yunzhi learn that the man who saved her that day was no ideal husband. He was the wildest eagle in Yanzhou. Once he decided she belonged to him, every part of her, from flesh to soul, had to be his without exception.

She would belong to him forever, and only him, like any ordinary spoils of war.

*

She first met His Highness on a rainy night in Bianjing, when the city seemed to devour all who walked its streets. Shen Zhaoshan rode in on horseback, drew his bow, and shot dead the rebel leader who had tried to assault her.

He disliked foolish enemies, and he disliked delicate young women.

But when she pleaded for his kindness with tear-reddened eyes, Shen Zhaoshan, as if bewitched, did not push her away.

And so she became the spoils of his southern campaign, more precious to him than all the silks and jewels: pampered, noble, and fit to be played with in a cage.

He took her back to Yanzhou and gave her snow-capped mountains, eagles, grasslands, fine horses, long trails of smoke, and sunsets. But the naive young woman only shook her head and said she didn't want any of them.

What did she want, then?

It was only when Cui Yunzhi resolutely leapt from Great Green Mountain, saying he could never grow a true heart, that Shen Zhaoshan understood.

She wanted the one thing the Eagle King did not have: a heart that beat for only one person.

# Sing the Chile Song across Yinshan, for the beauty's tears have always been plentiful #

Theme: Work hard, stay positive, build a better future together, and strive relentlessly for your ideals and ambitions.