(Beautiful and proud, from unhinged to sane, regent princess vs. restrained and devoted, from sane to unhinged, powerful minister in a chaotic age)
Xiao Li ascended the throne as a woman.
Looking back on her life, from a princess forced into a political marriage before her kingdom fell to an empress who drove a wedge between her enemies and reclaimed her homeland, it seemed that every desperate plight and every victory had been inseparable from the man who had supported her with all his might.
Cheng Shu, Grand Secretary and Great General of the Southern Dynasty.
When this powerful general, whose influence reached across the court, reclaimed Luoyang with a hundred thousand cavalry, the entire court thought he would take the throne for himself. Instead, he removed his armor, held out his military seal, and knelt before her, bowing his head in submission.
-
After court, Xiao Li trailed her phoenix robe as she wandered back to the inner palace.
Between the heavy curtains and deep bedchamber, the bitter scent of medicine hung in the air. A man's low, hoarse cough sounded intermittently.
His figure on the bed was still lean and lithe, but years of old injuries had long since ravaged him within.
“They say you plan for everything, Master...”
Xiao Li sneered as she pinched his pale, fragile face and flung him hard against the foot of the bed.
“Now that things have come to this, do you regret saving my life when my kingdom fell all those years ago?”
He fell from the bed, reopening the knife wound on his chest. Blood seeped through the lines of his lean, graceful back and waist, staining his thin white nightclothes red.
He lay sprawled on the floor in a wretched heap, his gaze unfocused, yet his hand reached past the layers of her skirt and seized her ankle.
“I do not regret it, Your Majesty.”
His callused fingertips gently brushed against her. Xiao Li's expression changed, and she recoiled half a step as if shocked.
Cheng Shu did not hold on, letting the warmth slip from his palm like a bird taking flight.
A dark red gleam from his poison's effects clearly flashed in his eyes, but he lowered his gaze and coaxed her in a meek voice:
“Jiaojiao, don't be afraid.”
“Afraid?”
Xiao Li gave a mocking laugh. Her embroidered shoe nudged his long, jade-like fingers, then pressed down hard:
“I seem to remember that, before you sent me away to be married off, you said, ‘If Your Highness can return to court, I will accept a thousand cuts and ten thousand slashes.’ Now, shouldn't you be the one who's afraid?”
Cheng Shu closed his eyes and smiled. Pain shot through his fingertips, but his words held a trace of pleasure. “I wonder how Your Majesty plans to cut me tonight?”
-
Xiao Li once thought Cheng Shu's heart was made of thorns and iron. But when she truly dug into it layer by layer with the tip of a knife, all she found were depths of thought as vast as the sea and a tenderness that surged like storm waves.
Cheng Shu had also tried to test Xiao Li's heart...
Never mind. His princess had no heart.
From the day she returned to court, he had been the most loyal dog at her side and the sharpest blade in her hand. She decided who he loved or hated, and whether he lived or died.
Reader's Guide:
1. Teacher and student x sovereign and subject, older man/younger woman with a nine-year age gap, happy ending.
2. A sea of hatred and passion early on, with a little melodrama for spice. A parade of male rivals in every flavor throughout, while the heroine is adored by everyone without realizing it.
3. Plenty of battle injuries, torture, and frail-and-sickly tropes. The hero is maxed out in both brains and combat ability, so let him suffer a little physical pain.
4. The blurb takes place near the end. The story opens after the princess returns to court, following her growth from regent princess to empress.
5. A transmigrator is the second female lead.
Content warnings:
1. The hero was once betrothed to the heroine's elder sister, but they never married.
2. The heroine was sent to the Northern Dynasty for a political marriage for three years, and it was a real marriage arrangement.
Note: The title comes from the song "Qing Shang Yue" by Vagary. The blurb's line, “She decides who he loves or hates, and whether he lives or dies,” comes from the song "Na You Ta" by Chen Zhang Taikang.
Theme: Scars can be a sea of suffering, or they can bloom into flowers in a place of utter desolation.
