The Cool, Handsome Top Scholar's Sparrow Has Flown from His Palm

[Regret-and-redemption arc/Reborn/Angst] Anti-piracy protection is now enabled, with 70% of the text available and a 72-hour delay.

Zhou Yuanyao was a noble lady of the Zhou family in the capital, well-mannered, kind, and beautiful. But the stupidest thing she ever did was fall for the youngest Number One Scholar in the court, who happened to be as cold as ice.

Zhou Yuanyao loved him. Even after their wedding, despite his constant coldness, she indulged him in every way and tried to win him over with tenderness.

She had thought that even the coldest stone would warm up after ten years in her hands.

Until the year she unexpectedly learned she was pregnant. She was so happy that she went to tell him, only to hear that her beloved husband had submitted a memorial that had demoted her father six ranks and exiled him to a barren land on the frontier.

Three thousand li of exile, the poisonous insects in Zhanglin, the bitter winds along the way. How could her father possibly survive?

As for her, in that man's words, she was merely "born spoiled and willful, wantonly persecuted her half-sister, treated human life like nothing, and was rotten to the core."

Blow after blow made her tremble all over as her consciousness slowly slipped away.

When she woke again, she was in her bedchamber. "Madam, don't move. You just miscarried, and your body..."

Zhou Yuanyao's eyes reddened. "What? My child... Why is my child gone?!"

"I had the physician abort it."

The man who stood by the doorframe had shared her bed for ten years, but for the first time, he seemed so cold-blooded and unfamiliar.

Zhou Yuanyao trembled all over and finally broke down.

After days of torment, she stood listlessly by the window of the loft. She gently reached out and pushed open the lattice window.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back at fourteen, before any of the mistakes had begun.

But Zhou Yuanyao wanted nothing more to do with Jiang Yu'an.

Over the years, Jiang Yu'an had been having strange, fantastical dreams. He dreamed of marrying Miss Zhou and living with her for ten years. The dreams were so real that he couldn't help believing them.

Then, on her coming-of-age ceremony, he suddenly remembered everything from both lifetimes.

Just as he thought Zhou Yuanyao would really confess her feelings to him after the ceremony, just as she had in his "dream," he saw his close friend, the heir to the prince's estate, enter the flower hall with a smile. "Yaoyao, you promised to try out my new horse today. Why are you still dawdling here?"

For some reason, a sudden taste of blood rose in his throat.

He knew she wanted to escape, yet insisted on laying an inescapable net for her with his own hands as she awakened.

Later, when Jiang Yu'an flung the imperial decree into the main hall of the Zhou residence, Zhou Yuanyao was about to leave.

"It's the emperor's decree granting us a marriage. Are you going to defy it, Miss Zhou?" He rubbed her pale pink earlobe. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hand trembled. "Did you think you could escape my grasp just because you got another chance at life?"

"Does the Number One Scholar know that when gold is cracked, it must be melted down in a fire to shine again?"

He suddenly laughed, blood rising in his throat. "Then burn through my bones and use them as fuel for your furnace. How about that?"

Reading Guide:

1. A traditional regret-and-redemption arc, not the kind where the story starts with the heroine reborn. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. There's a reason behind everything.

2. This is a regret-and-redemption story. If that's not your thing, feel free to click away.

3. The heroine is love-struck at first and has no golden finger. She grows and awakens step by step. Please make sure you're comfortable with that before reading. I hope you enjoy the story, and I humbly thank you.

4. There is a win-back-the-wife arc, with everything you'd expect from a regret-and-redemption story, but he won't win her back. A mistake is a mistake, no matter what the hidden reasons and hardships may be.

Coming soon: Imprisoning Jade, Seizing Fragrance

[Regret-and-redemption arc/Angst/Coercive Possession]

Yao Ruhuan knew that being Prince Cheng's mistress was absurd.

When Zongzheng Jing saved her from the blades of bandits, she clutched his sleeve like a drowning person desperately grasping the last piece of driftwood.

Later, he gave her gold and jade hair ornaments from the Rainbow Garment Pavilion, built her a warm pavilion by the lake, and used his military achievements to obtain the emperor's permission to add her to the imperial registry as a secondary consort. She truly began to fall for him.

But she didn't know that while his usually impassive eyes were gentle when he looked at her, they were hardly any different from the way he looked at others.

The new princess consort was a noblewoman from a prestigious family and had grown up with Prince Cheng as his childhood sweetheart. She had fallen from her horse for him and once spent the whole night copying scriptures and praying for him. Everyone said that Miss Chen and Prince Cheng were destined to become a devoted couple.

Prince Cheng also took Yao Ruhuan out and gave her treasures, but she always felt there was something missing.

Until one day, the new princess consort learned about her and used every means at her disposal to investigate everything Prince Cheng had done for her. At last, the princess consort couldn't sit still.

She wanted the prince's love all to herself. She wanted Yao Ruhuan gone!

While the prince was away, she cruelly locked Yao Ruhuan, who was sensitive to the cold, in a leaky courtyard where snow blew in. Icy slush surrounded her, and overwhelming helplessness quickly swallowed her whole.

On the sixteenth day of the twelfth month, Yao Ruhuan threw herself into the flames.

A few months later, the Prince of Lingnan entered the capital to pay tribute with his new wife.

At the spring banquet on the hunting grounds, Zongzheng Jing aimed an arrow at the heart of the prince from a different surname, but lost strength the moment he saw the princess consort's face. The woman in the Prince of Lingnan's arms, her belly round beneath her fox-fur cloak, was unmistakably his secondary consort, who had died in the fire.

"Careful, Your Highness." A soft laugh came from atop the horse. He watched helplessly as a delicate hand snapped his old arrow in two. She was clearly wearing the robes of the Prince of Lingnan's princess consort.

Later, Prince Cheng broke into the prince's estate at night, only to see the woman rumored to have died in the fire playing with a baby in its cradle.

"You faked your death to fool me, even calculating the baby's age to deceive me..." He was wild with fury, struggling to contain the fire in his heart, when a laughing voice came from behind the bead curtain. "Prince Cheng, this prince's legitimate child with his princess consort is hardly yours to inspect."

At once, the madness Zongzheng Jing had kept suppressed for so long grew wildly in his heart. He gripped his jade thumb ring so tightly that its shards cut his palm and blood flowed, yet he seemed not to notice.

He wanted to take her back. He would take her back even if it killed him.

Theme: Strive for a better life.