Bai Yujing once had a beloved, but unfortunately, that beloved was perfect in every way except one: he died young.
Before he died, he left behind a son, seventeen or eighteen years old, someone Bai Yujing had watched grow up. He was a precious, refined young man raised in luxury.
But the two of them weren't close.
After his beloved died, Bai Yujing thought he would spend the rest of his life clutching his memories of the past. He never expected that, before long, this refined young man would come knocking.
"My father's only dying wish was for me to look after you." The cold young monarch looked at the notorious young man before him, infamous for trying to resurrect the dead, yet what came to mind was the first time he had seen him.
Back then, Bai Yujing was the empire's only Chosen One. The emperor praised him with an old saying: "A solitary light shines on itself, its heart and soul as pure as ice and snow."
Such radiance, such bearing.
Now he stayed in this drab little house, like white jade hidden beneath dust.
Bai Yujing didn't move. He couldn't even be bothered to look at him.
When he didn't reply, that infuriating brat lifted his eyes and stared at him. A moment later, he suddenly spoke with unmistakable malice.
"Or would you rather I call you 'little stepmother'?"
Inspired by a widely shared passage:
"You can't win over someone older. You can't be the first to do something for him; someone has already braved fire and water for his sake. Someone loved him for a hundred years and has already arranged to love him for another hundred. Someone took a blade for him, someone sat with him on a rooftop, drinking and smashing bottles, losing their minds all night. Love and hate have both been refined into pearls covered in dust. What makes you think you can make him fall in love with you? What makes you think you can make him waste another few decades?"
Content warnings:
1. The love interest is the beloved's son, a product of genetic modification. In other words, he is a child the beloved created himself, one he could be said to have "made."
2. The relationship between the love interest and the protagonist is romantic. But the most important person to the protagonist has always been the beloved. Their relationship combines "sovereign and subject, teacher and student, confidants, and family." All three of them have miserable lives, and their relationships are deeply twisted.
A sudden urge to write an angsty, melodramatic story. It won't be very long.
Blurb archived on January 8, 2026
Theme: Love never ends, and life is forever filled with the sorrow of a river flowing east
