Only After I Died Did I Learn the Empress Saw Me as a Substitute

[Both reborn / a desperate quest to win her back / a gentle, radiant noblewoman vs. a spirited prince in his previous life, now a young prince consumed by regret]

Emperor Yan Zheng of the Su Dynasty passed away, plunging the whole nation into mourning.

His empress, Xiao Wanyi, was famed throughout the land for her gentleness and virtue. Yet before the late emperor's coffin, she did something that shook the court and made the historians' brushes tremble.

Holding the phoenix seal, she publicly petitioned the court: she wished to divorce the late emperor.

Yan Zheng's spirit, hovering above his coffin, was even more incredulous than the stunned officials filling the hall.

He had achieved great things in his life: quelling the northern rebellion, bringing order to the realm, and becoming an emperor for the ages. He had also always considered himself deeply devoted to his wife. He and Xiao Wanyi had shared a harmonious marriage, raised two sons and a daughter, and their love had become a celebrated tale.

He had thought of her as the one who understood him, the warmest harbor on his imperial journey.

He had never imagined that before his bones had even grown cold, she would want to sever their supposedly heaven-made match.

Had all those decades of love between them been an illusion?

Hearing her say she had long had someone else in her heart, Yan Zheng was so furious he nearly came back to life.

He truly wanted to ask Xiao Wanyi who this supposed love of hers was.

When he opened his eyes again, he had been reborn to the eve of his wedding to Xiao Wanyi, back when he was a spirited young man galloping on horseback.

At the palace banquet this time, he approached her and struck up a conversation, just as he had in his previous life.

But instead of the shy, gentle smile he remembered, he was met by bright eyes filled with hatred and wariness.

His empress... looked at him as if he were already dead.