[Powerful Minister × Empress]
Two strong leads, love and hate each other, and the more they love, the more they fight.
*
Xie Yuanwan was elegant and regal, the most resplendent peony in the land.
The legitimate daughter of the Protector General's household, she became empress at nineteen, took charge of the government at twenty, and revealed her true strength at twenty-two.
In the Great Xia kingdom, only the emperor outranked Xie Yuanwan in power.
Sadly, the marriage turned sour. Her husband fell ill, their crown prince was still young, and Xie Yuanwan and the chancellor took over the affairs of state.
People said the empress and His Majesty had been childhood sweethearts, a perfect match.
Back then, when Prince Pingchang tried to seize power outside Changxing Palace, the Xie family's cavalry charged in, routed the traitors, and cut down the conspirators. That was how His Majesty secured his throne and Great Xia was freed from future threats.
Everyone said Xie Yuanwan was a good empress.
No one knew that Xie Yuanwan had given her heart to someone, not the exalted emperor, but a concubine-born daughter of the Prince of Pingchang's household.
The night Prince Pingchang rebelled, she personally stabbed Qi Yanmin through the chest. With words that cut to the bone, she buried that person in the blood-soaked Changxing Palace.
Xie Yuanwan was ruthless and vicious, unwilling to spare anyone even at the risk of killing the innocent. From that day on, there was no longer a daughter of the Xie family. There was only Her Majesty, the Empress of Great Xia.
Six years passed in the blink of an eye, and a foster daughter named Chu Sanfeng joined the chancellor's household.
The chancellor was regent, and the female historian Chu was able to return to the capital. After her adoptive father's personal assessment, she was ordered into the palace to teach the crown prince poetry, history, and etiquette.
The palace grounds were gloomy and still, and the flowers had long since withered. In the imperial garden, Xie Yuanwan met the newly arrived Grand Tutor Chu.
The familiar face of her former lover had turned cold and distant. They looked at her as if she were nothing, without a trace of tenderness.
Xie Yuanwan knew.
She was now the empress, her hair done up in a married woman's coiffure.
Qi Yanmin, however, remained as ethereal as ever.
They had crossed the Bridge of Helplessness.
In the end, they could not escape the divide between ruler and subject, nor a subject's heart of iron.
Content warnings:
1. Both leads are virgins, with mutual feelings in bold. The emperor is a puppet, and is a eunuch who cannot perform sexually. The crown prince is an adopted member of the imperial clan. These two tools will die later, cut down like vegetables by the seme.
2. Both leads are ruthless. They love and hate each other, and the more they love, the more they fight. Their happy ending is possible only because they cling to the last breath of their immortal energy.
3. A slow-burn political intrigue novel. The political machinations may be at a kindergarten level, so please be patient.
4. Same old rule: cooking isn't easy, and making what you want to eat is even harder. Don't break up the couples I'm writing about (noodle person weeps).
Theme: Those who see through the illusion break free from their cocoons and become butterflies.
