After Faking My Death, I Became the Crown Prince's White Moonlight

[Old-school angst] [The regret-and-pursuit arc] [Coercive romance]

Wen Jiao is the daughter of the great general who guards the nation.

When she was eight, her father died fighting a neighboring country. Her mother was so devastated that she followed him not long afterward, leaving Wen Jiao an orphan with no one to rely on.

The current emperor took pity on her, brought her into the palace, and entrusted her to the empress dowager's care.

Shen Qinghong is the current emperor's eldest legitimate son and the crown prince.

A fine gentleman, handsome beyond compare.

Wen Jiao has secretly loved him since childhood. Unfortunately, her love is unrequited. He has feelings for Tang Jingxue, the daughter of the Minister of Revenue.

At a palace banquet one day, she saw how intimate they were, oblivious to everyone around them. Heartbroken, she drank a couple more cups than she should have.

But somehow, she ended up in his bed.

After a night of passion, she looked at the stern-faced man beside her, lowered her head, gripped the corner of the blanket, and murmured,

"Your Highness, don't worry. About last night... let's pretend it never happened."

Before long, word of it got out.

When the emperor heard, he flew into a rage. He summoned Shen Qinghong to the imperial study and gave him a thorough tongue-lashing, then issued an edict the next day ordering the two of them to marry.

An imperial decree cannot be disobeyed.

A month later, she was carried into the Eastern Palace in a grand bridal sedan.

After they married, he treated her with utter indifference.

The palace servants openly and covertly mocked her, saying she wasn't favored and wouldn't hold on to the position of crown princess for long.

She never took it to heart.

She believed that sooner or later, he would understand how she felt.

That is, until one day she accidentally overheard him discussing with the empress the idea of taking Tang Jingxue as a secondary consort.

In that moment, every hope she had was shattered.

As crown prince, Shen Qinghong was courteous, humble, and respectful to the worthy. Yet that one night with Wen Jiao became a stain he could never wash away.

He loathed and neglected her, even allowing others to humiliate her. No matter how he treated her, she greeted him with a radiant smile every time they met, caring for him and attending to his needs, never showing the slightest hint of grievance.

As time went by,

he thought that since he'd married her anyway, he might as well just let things continue like this.

But she was only a little orphan with no influence at court to offer him. His mother wanted him to take Tang Jingxue as a secondary consort.

When Wen Jiao found out, she neither cried nor made a scene. She only smiled and said,

"Congratulations, Your Highness."

Seeing how understanding she was, he thought he would try to treat her a little better from then on.

Who could have guessed that, on the night of the wedding, a fire would suddenly break out in the Eastern Palace?

By the time he received the news and arrived, her chambers had been burned to ruins.

He saw her again a year later.

He was inspecting Jiangnan and happened to spot her in a busy street, holding the arm of his younger brother and looking up at him with the same smile she'd once given Shen Qinghong.

Only then did he realize that everything she'd done back then had been a carefully laid scheme to get away from him.

But how could he let her have her way?

On her wedding day,

in a room decorated with bright red double-happiness characters, Shen Qinghong pins her against the door. His presence is wild and impossible to resist, while his seemingly calm voice still holds a domineering edge.

"Jiaojiao, if Fifth Brother comes in right now and sees you like this, do you think he'll still marry you?"

Wen Jiao grips the door with all her strength, her hair disheveled and her face flushed, but she stubbornly refuses to make a sound.

"Your Highness, what will it take for you to let me go?"

Shen Qinghong gives a low laugh. His cold laughter echoes through the silent room, filled with madness and cruelty.

"The only way I'll let you go is if I die!"

Theme: Love has to go both ways.