Que Chaohuang (Reborn Twice)

----Major revisions needed, do not read----

[Black-hearted, unhinged beauty x sickly, beautiful and tragic hostage prince]

Shen Chaohuang died on the day of her wedding to the man she loved, dressed in her phoenix crown and red bridal robes.

In her previous life, she poured all her family’s power into helping Xiao Wenjing seize the throne. Just as she was about to become empress, he personally gouged out her eyes, flayed her, and tore out her bones, then framed her for treason.

As she endured nine thousand cuts on the execution platform, she heard her younger brother’s screams as he was made into a human swine. She swallowed her last breath, unwilling to accept her fate.

When she opened her eyes again, she was back at her coming-of-age banquet.

Her half-sister, who had used Soul-Locking Powder in her previous life to destroy her Nine Phoenix Gu and poison skills, was now smiling sweetly as she presented a crystal cup. "Sister, His Highness sent you this reward."

Shen Chaohuang deliberately let it slip. The scalding poison splashed across that lovely face. Feigning hurt, she said, "I dropped it by accident, little sister. Don't blame me." She was the very picture of a kindhearted, foolish white lotus.

Then, one night, while stealing a Blood Ganoderma, she accidentally saved Rong Que, a hostage prince from the northern frontier.

That refined young man, so frail he had to cover his mouth with a handkerchief when he coughed blood, crushed someone's throat with his bare hand.

With blood on his fingertips, he smiled and backed her into a corner. "Miss Shen, if you're going to kill someone, pick a night without a moon."

From that moment on, Shen Chaohuang knew that this hostage prince was not as helpless as he seemed.

The legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Zhennan and the hostage prince from the northern frontier formed an alliance.

She used poison as a lock; he wielded gu as a chain.

She entered the game with her life on the line; he offered the imperial seal as his pledge.

On the day she avenged herself, she stood atop a mountain of corpses in bloodstained red. She watched him approach in a moon-white cloak, his eyes alight with a blood-red, undying madness, and asked:

"Rong Que, what if I want the whole world?"

Without hesitation, he cut off the emperor's head, took the jade seal, and presented it to her with both hands. His eyes glittered with possessive madness as he said:

"Shen Chaohuang, I would give you even my life."

-

Only later did Shen Chaohuang learn that the one who had gathered her body after her death in her previous life was the man behind her: once a hostage prince of Southern Chu, now the decisive and ruthless ruler of the northern frontier.

He said, "Hui Zhi has three fears in life: the capriciousness of Heaven, Xi He furrowing her brow, and... having to sleep in the study tonight."

-

His love is the only cure when the Heart-Burning Gu takes hold.

She wants him as the last remnant of conscience on her path to revenge.

[Reader's Guide]

1. One-on-one, no cheating, and willing-to-die-for-love romance. The male lead is hopelessly in love; the female lead starts by using him, then comes to love him sincerely.

2. Revenge and romance are split evenly. Revenge is straightforward, and the political scheming is at an elementary-school level.

3. (Important) Both leads are reborn. The male lead will regain his memories of his previous life later on.

4. In her previous life, the female lead genuinely loved Xiao Wenjing. After being reborn, she genuinely wants to kill him.

5. In this setting, the female lead is sixteen and has come of age; the male lead is eighteen and an adult.

6. A mountain of author-invented worldbuilding. Gu and poison are only there to serve the romance between the leads, and are just a subplot.

7. The female lead's name is Shen Chao Huang, with Chao pronounced as written, not Zhao. Please don't mispronounce it, dear readers.

----Preview of an upcoming novel----

Cheng Xi had been fantasizing about him for a long time.

Ever since she learned she wasn't his biological younger sister.

She listened to the audio dramas he voiced, listening to his restrained panting through her headphones, and drifted into a dream.

In her dream, she saw the man she had longed for all these years wearing clothes she wouldn't dare imagine him in. He stood before her, then knelt reverently.

Like a knight before his devoted queen.

Everyone said she was lucky to have such a wonderful older brother, and that his future wife would surely treat her well, too.

Cheng Xi only smiled when she heard this.

That night, in her dream, she made him call her "sister-in-law."

She might never become his real sister-in-law, but in her dreams, what she said went.

In their dreams, they were passionately entangled, whispering the sweetest words of love and making love again and again.

But when she woke the next morning and saw the empty bed beside her, Cheng Xi sighed.

A dream was just a dream. It could never come true.

-

My little sister has been acting strangely lately.

Mu Chengxiao thought.

At first, he thought she had discovered the things he'd hidden away. After testing the waters and finding nothing, he breathed a sigh of relief and went to the studio to record lines for a new drama.

The new audio drama was a taboo romance between a brother and sister who weren't related by blood.

It was about a brother secretly hiding his sister's clothes, setting traps, and gradually luring her in.

Mu Chengxiao paused, unable to stop himself from picturing her.

She smelled so good.

While he was recording the intimate scenes, the voice director teased him, asking if he had someone he liked. Otherwise, why did his breathing sound so real?

Mu Chengxiao said nothing, merely curling his lips into a smile.

If it counted when it happened in a dream.

That night, in a dream, Mu Chengxiao was scolded by her.

Mu Chengxiao didn't know what had happened during the day to make her so angry,

but he liked her like this, so different from the sweet, well-behaved girl she usually was.

The man in her dream wrapped his arms around the waist of the person above him and made love with her again and again.

But when morning came, everything was as usual.

Mu Chengxiao opened the safe

and looked at Cheng Xi's clothes, the ones she'd lost over the past few days, neatly folded inside. He sighed.

When would his dream finally come true?

-

Cheng Xi had lost another piece of clothing.

It was new, and she'd only worn it for a day.

No one knew she'd hidden a tracking device inside it.

Following the red dot on her phone, Cheng Xi came to the door of Mu Chengxiao's room. She heard the disordered panting from inside and froze.

Then she turned the handle.

The room was dimly lit. The man sat facing her on a leather sofa, his sharply defined left hand holding something she knew all too well.

When he saw her enter, he gazed at her with unmistakable frustration, though his voice was hoarse.

That hoarse voice was one she'd heard countless times.

She had fallen asleep to it in her dreams.

Then she heard him say:

"You know I'm not your biological brother."

Sweet and obedient, but obsessively addicted to him: a first-year college student

VS

Gentle and aloof, but secretly lecherous and twisted: a voice actor

[Reader's Guide]

1. One-on-one, no cheating, six-year age gap, and a taboo romance between unrelated siblings.

2. The leads are not related by blood, and they are not in other relationships while dating.

3. The male lead enters the female lead's dreams and acts according to her wishes, while retaining his memories.

4. The author's personal indulgence, written to satisfy my own tastes, with no logic.

Theme: Love is mutual salvation, and both people choose each other