Three Years After the Crown Prince Abandoned Me

[Old-school melodrama | The regretful chase | Forced possession]

Lin Qingjia was born into a prestigious family. She and the current Crown Prince, Pei Yuchen, grew up together, and she was soon to marry into the Eastern Palace.

Then came an uprising. Pei Yuchen was ambushed by a trusted aide and killed.

Only when Lin Qingjia was forced by her father and brothers to marry the Second Prince did she finally understand: the Lin family had betrayed the Eastern Palace, and the scented sachet she'd made for Pei Yuchen with her own hands before he left had concealed poison, becoming the instrument of his death.

On her wedding night, a sword lifted Lin Qingjia's veil. The person before her was none other than Pei Yuchen, risen from the dead.

Flames soared over the Second Prince's residence, and blood ran in rivers. Her wedding clothes were stripped away, and she was branded a traitor.

Pei Yuchen's gaze held three feet of icy coldness. "I want you to atone for the sins of your entire Lin family."

From that day on, the Lin family vanished from the court, and a palace maid was added to the Eastern Palace.

*

Lin Qingjia's days in the Eastern Palace were far from easy.

In winters past, when her hands were covered in chilblains, Pei Yuchen would apply medicine himself. Now he ordered her to wash clothes in the water and prune thorny flowers.

The magnolia tree in the Eastern Palace had been planted by Pei Yuchen for her with his own hands. But when Lady Shen, his favored consort, said she loved green plum blossoms, he ordered the tree cut down and plum trees planted instead.

Lin Qingjia watched with her own eyes as the love of the past turned into a hatred she could not let go.

She had wronged Pei Yuchen.

When assassins attacked the Eastern Palace at night, she didn't hesitate to take an arrow for him.

After that, Pei Yuchen's attitude changed. He even took her to the palace retreat to escape the summer heat, and she thought there was still love between them.

Until the palace retreat caught fire that night. Surrounded by rebels, she heard the imperial army's order: "His Highness the Crown Prince has already returned to the capital with Lady Shen. The palace retreat is full of rebels. Kill them all!"

Lin Qingjia finally understood. He still hated her to the core, and had brought her to the palace retreat as bait.

Pain seized her lower abdomen, and she fell amid the chaos. The blood pooling beneath her was from her child with Pei Yuchen...

*

The more Pei Yuchen loved Lin Qingjia, the more he hated her betrayal.

When word came that she had died at the palace retreat, he felt as if a piece of his heart had gone missing. But a woman who had once betrayed him deserved nothing less than death.

That same year, he ascended the throne. Though he stood above all others, he always felt as if something were slowly slipping through his fingers.

When he went to her old room and found the scented sachet she had made by hand, he finally understood everything.

This was the sachet she had originally meant to give him. The poisoned one had been switched. Betraying him and marrying another man had never been her choice.

He suddenly lowered his head and spat out a mouthful of blood.

She had never owed him anything. He was the one who could never repay her in this lifetime. He had killed the person he loved most with his own hands.

Three years later, a prince of Qiangrou came on a diplomatic visit, bringing his wife with him.

From his seat on the high dais, Pei Yuchen recognized the familiar face that had haunted his dreams day and night. His heart, withered and dead for three years, began beating again.

She hadn't died. She was sitting right in front of him.

But she was laughing and talking tenderly with another man, pouring wine for her current husband with a gentle smile.

Pei Yuchen's eyes turned bloodshot. The pain felt as if it were tearing his heart apart.

They had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. How could she be with someone else?

[Read these content warnings first:]

1. HE, one-on-one romance. Both leads are sexually inexperienced, and no second male lead takes the female lead's place.

2. Old-school melodrama, extremely melodramatic! The female lead suffers physically and emotionally, and the male lead suffers later. If this isn't your thing, read with caution!

3. Inspired on February 12, 2026, and completed on August 28, 2026. Images have been saved as proof.

Theme: Though the moss flower is as small as a grain of rice, it still strives to bloom like a peony