The Guide Regent Is Widowed

A cold-on-the-outside, secretly unhinged ice-cold Guide and a big-sis Sentinel with overwhelming combat prowess (the male lead is gentle by nature, but that's what someone who's nearly lost his wife is like)

The silly version:

Shocking! The empire's former top general is reborn as a nonconformist redhead who scavenges for a living?

After becoming the Chief Executive, my arch-enemy has turned into a pretty widower?

After our reunion, the aloof Chief Executive won't let go of my hand. Thanks for asking, but it turns out I'm his deceased beloved wife!

Click to see the untold story of the badass big sis with ceiling-level combat prowess and the lovelorn widower who's cold and abstinent on the surface but actually an unhinged, lovesick man. Watch the dazzling big sis bring the ice-cold Chief Executive to heel!

The more serious version:

On the day the interstellar war ended, Chu Yue nearly said goodbye to this world.

When she opened her eyes again, humanity had entered the post-interstellar era, and she had gone from being an Imperial general to a nonconformist little redhead who scraped by picking through trash.

Scavenging was great. Flexible hours, no need to get up early to clock in. Chu Yue was living pretty comfortably on a frontier planet.

But then she discovered that her old rival, Shen Xing, had become the Alliance's Chief Executive, while she had been smeared as a mentally ill woman who had died by accident on the battlefield after losing control of her mental powers. Chu Yue couldn't sit still anymore.

After three days and three nights of intense online surfing, Chu Yue finally found a little psychological comfort among all the articles praising her old rival: that cold, obsessive neat freak had become a lovely widower.

Chu Yue felt much better. She laughed without a shred of sympathy.

Then she realized that the beloved who had died young, according to Shen Xing... seemed to be her.

One day later, Chu Yue found the unconscious Chief Executive.

The man's grip on her wrist was so tight it nearly reached the bone, yet his mental tendrils gently wound around the ends of her hair. "You look a lot like... my wife, who died young."

Chu Yue looked at the dog-tag necklace around his neck, the one that belonged to her alone, and smiled meaningfully. "Could it be that your wife is still alive?"

PS: This is a parallel-world story to After Joining My Arch-Rival's Team [Esports] (completed). See the author's note in Chapter 1 for a guide. My take on the Sentinel-Guide setting comes with a mountain of original rules. The female lead is a Dark Sentinel, whose original spirit form is a red fox (its high-level form is a nine-tailed fox). There will be other spirit forms later, which I won't spoil for now. The male lead is a wide-area Guide, whose spirit form is a white cat (its high-level form is Bai Ze). Sentinels and Guides are only combat roles here.

Please add my upcoming parallel-world historical Matriarchy novel, The Cold Regent Becomes a Widow [Matriarchy], to your reading list!

Blurb:

As the only noble of a different surname in the Jiang Dynasty, Chu Yue commands a mighty army whose iron cavalry is invincible. Every court official lowers their eyes before her, and even members of the imperial family have to give way.

But ever since Shen Xing took control of the imperial seal, Chu Yue has suffered one setback after another at the hands of this cool, aloof man. Her military funds are often withheld, and her stipend keeps getting cut.

At last, unable to take it anymore, Chu Yue poured out her grievances to a close friend. Her friend smiled mysteriously. "Don't worry. I have just the trick for dealing with men who think too highly of themselves."

That night, a jug of "Spring's Intoxication" was delivered to the Regent's residence, the Xiaoyao Hall. Completely unaware, Chu Yue sauntered into Shen Xing's room, ready to see her nemesis make a fool of himself. She casually picked up the enticing drink on the table and downed it...

The wine slid down her throat, and heat surged through her. When she looked up again, the usually cool man's eyes were tinged red, and his breath was hot.

Behind warm curtains, golden armor lay discarded on the floor. She gripped his flushed neck and watched his immortal-like composure crumble piece by piece. His breath burned like hot coals, his eyes glistened, yet he sank his teeth into her shoulder.

Three days later, an imperial edict landed at the general's residence. The golden marriage decree made Chu Yue's temples throb, while the culprit had already fled north with the official seal.

Chu Yue thought their marriage was a farcical mistake of fate. After the wedding, she and Shen Xing kept to their own sides and maintained clear boundaries.

Unexpectedly, the winds shifted. Chu Yue's achievements threatened the throne, and in a fit of rage, the Empress brought the Chu estate down in a single day. By Great Jiang law, women convicted of treason were exiled three thousand li, while the men of their household were sent to brothels to serve as entertainers.

Knowing that he was proud and would rather break than bend, she left a divorce agreement before she departed, thinking it would preserve the bond between two people who had served the same court.

But when she returned to the capital after narrowly escaping death, wearing someone else's face, she saw beneath the gilded lanterns of Zuiyun House the once untouchable, immaculate Regent. Now, dressed in a dazzling peony-red robe, he had become an entertainer in this pleasure house... one who performed but did not sell his body.

Only after making inquiries did Chu Yue learn that when Shen Xing heard the news that she had died by accident on the road to exile, the man who valued his good name above all else had torn up the divorce agreement she left behind and willingly fallen into the pleasure quarters as her surviving husband.

The day her life hung by a thread, his hair turned white overnight.

Boundless hatred and bone-deep anguish ignited a wildfire in Chu Yue's eyes. She changed her name and concealed herself, vowing to drag the ungrateful woman on the dragon throne down from her lofty seat and make her taste the pain Chu Yue had suffered.

In a private room at Zuiyun House, a subtle fragrance drifted through the air. The bead curtain rustled. Shen Xing's red robe trailed along the floor, his snow-white hair adorned with not a single gold or jade ornament. His slender hand held a cup to her lips. He was breathtakingly beautiful, yet his presence was as cold as mountain snow, utterly out of place in this den of indulgence.

He lowered his eyes. His cool, distant voice rang like broken jade striking ice, with a trace of barely perceptible hoarseness, gently striking Chu Yue's heart:

"My wife... do you need help?"

PS: One-on-one, both leads' first time. The female lead has no cheat items. The story may have an old-school melodramatic feel, so proceed with caution if that's not your thing (runs away underground).

Theme: Protecting the stars