The Spring Prison

[A love-starved, unhinged emperor who grows dark and possessive × a resilient, cold-hearted palace maid | groveling romance | second male lead wins, happy ending] On the day Qi Heng ascended the throne, he finally married the woman he had loved for years, who had been widowed for a long time. Yet he treated Sang Yu, who had fought by his side through life and death, as a shameful secret. So she asked to be stripped of her position and dragged her disabled body to Jiangnan, where she met Li Shiyan amid light spring rain and apricot blossoms. Li Shiyan taught her poetry, soothed her to sleep, and even teared up as he applied medicine to her wounds. What Sang Yu didn’t know was that Li Shiyan had been waiting for her for a very long time. But the day after Sang Yu left, the emperor completely lost his mind.

Three years later, the newly appointed governor of Jiangnan knelt in the imperial study, his back ramrod straight. “I wish to marry her.” The tyrant’s expression did not change, but the ring in his hand shattered beneath his grip. He had seen Sang Yu trembling in pain, covered in wounds, but he had never seen her so full of life.

In an apricot-red jacket and skirt, she rose on tiptoe to brush fallen petals from someone’s shoulder. Qi Heng smashed half the palace, then stormed into the bridal chamber with bloodshot eyes. “You’d rather have some useless scholar than me?” Sang Yu looked at him coldly and corrected him. “No. You were the one who didn’t want me first.” [Reading guide] The female lead is not a virgin, while the second male lead is / The heroine is covered in wounds early on, but the second male lead heals her later / The male lead is an obsessive, unhinged tyrant who pursues her to the bitter end / The second male lead is gentle and steadfast / Contains forced love, political intrigue, and tragic romance