The Female Prince Consort Accidentally Marked the Sickly Empress Dowager

[I want to try writing a story with a lofty theme like this. I have over 500 works on my to-read list, so let's get started~ I nearly cried while writing this blurb.]

Huo Yuxian was once an undefeated general. Because her achievements threatened the throne, she was forced to marry a princess.

After the wedding, she hoped to settle down and live peacefully with the princess.

But they still would not leave her alone. Her gland was destroyed, her martial arts were crippled, and she was accused of having an affair with the empress dowager and plotting a rebellion. She was condemned by everyone.

But with the realm in turmoil and foreign cavalry invading, she managed to escape and risked everything to escort the gravely ill, innocent empress dowager to seek reinforcements.

Meanwhile, she gave her life for her country, her body never to be found.

When she awoke again, she had just won a great battle and was returning to the capital. The day she arrived was also the day the new empress entered the palace. It was truly a double celebration.

Huo Yuxian knew that the emperor would fall gravely ill and die before consummating his marriage that night. That was when the tragedy of her previous life had begun.

She had to stop it.

But she was too late. In the wedding chamber, all that remained was the new empress, drugged and flushed. The Omega's scent filled the room, clouding her senses.

The new empress, barely conscious, took her hand and pressed her gland to Huo Yuxian's lips. In a sweet voice, she pleaded, "General, help me. Please."

One night of reckless passion.

Afterward, the newly widowed empress dowager tearfully begged Huo Yuxian to show her mercy. She hoped Huo Yuxian would help her secure her position in the palace, and asked her to visit at least once every day.

Huo Yuxian: ...?

And so their delicate relationship began.

But Huo Yuxian soon discovered that the empress dowager was ruthless and needed no protection at all. Instead, the empress dowager saved her time and again, leading her down a path utterly different from the one she had taken in her previous life.

The empress dowager was perfect in every way, except that she had no restraint in certain matters.

When Huo Yuxian was about to marry a princess, the empress dowager did not stop her. But on the night before the wedding, she secretly summoned Huo Yuxian and had her sleep beside her. Her slender fingers glided over Huo Yuxian inch by inch. "I really don't want anyone else enjoying that lovely waist of yours, General. Would you stay by my side forever?"

Huo Yuxian silenced her with a kiss.

Later, the empress dowager really did find another way to keep her by her side.

On the day Huo Yuxian was framed for colluding with the enemy and betraying her country, just before she was to be thrown in prison, the empress dowager came alone through the snow with a sword in hand. She killed everyone who had framed Huo Yuxian, including the princess Huo Yuxian was to marry.

Her face smeared with blood and her eyes red, she looked like a demon from hell. She clasped Huo Yuxian's hand and wrapped them both in one fur cloak. "This realm should have belonged to the General all along. Anyone who objects will die!"

*

In her previous life, the empress dowager found reinforcements and quelled the rebellion a month after Huo Yuxian gave her life for the country.

The sight of corpses piled high and rivers of blood could never be erased. She buried soldier after soldier, but could never find the General's body, not even a scrap of her clothing.

She coughed up blood, and her hair turned white overnight.

Knowing she had little time left, she dragged her ailing body through the work of purging the court and restoring order. She buried Huo Yuxian under the name of Grand General of the Cavalry, no longer as a princess's consort who had to depend on others.

On the day Huo Yuxian's name was cleared and proclaimed to the world, the empress dowager could no longer hold on. Coughing blood, she raised a cup of wine before Huo Yuxian's grave. "General, wait for me on the road to the afterlife."

After the death of Empress Dowager Zhaoren, Lu Yanning was buried in the same coffin as Grand General of the Cavalry Huo Yuxian. In the General's empty tomb lay a faded paper kite shaped like a sea eagle.

No one knew it had been the empress dowager's only toy as a child, made for her by the General herself.

Theme: Learning to love and be loved as they grow closer.