The story takes place in ancient China. The day my elder sister was appointed Crown Princess, I volunteered to marry the sickly General Wei Shuhan. All of the capital laughed, saying I was picking up the trash my sister didn't want. On our wedding night, I smiled lightly at my coughing, blood-stained groom. "General, do you know you've been poisoned by three strange toxins?" When he gripped my throat, I spoke even more shocking words: "I wish to make a deal with you-wipe out my family for me, and I'll cure your poison and extend your life." By the flickering candlelight, his eyes turned crimson. "And if I refuse?" I brushed my hand across his chest. "Then the general will have no choice but to enter the underworld as a virgin." Later, when the poison flared up, he pressed me against the medicine vat, his burning breath brushing my ear. "The third poison... could it be a love curse?"

Wang Liyue, the treasured youngest daughter of the Wang family, enters a childhood-arranged marriage with Gu Chengyan, the cold and powerful head of the Gu main family. Chengyan is raising his late sister's sons as his own, but the Gu branch families want to remove the boys from the inheritance line. Everyone expects Liyue to become a decorative wife. Instead, she becomes the one person who protects the boys, exposes the enemies, warms the Gu mansion and makes Chengyan fall hard enough to turn a family promise into a real marriage.

When Emperor Guixong ascends the throne after a bloody succession struggle, his first consort selection reshapes the inner court - and seals the fate of two sisters from the Zongsun clan. The elder sister, Zongsun Yanyi, enters the palace in splendor, backed by ministers and military patrons. Brilliant, charismatic, and politically groomed, she is placed in the prestigious Palace of Flourishing Light and quickly becomes a factional darling. She is expected to rise - perhaps even become empress. The younger sister, Zongsun Ying, enters quietly as a low-ranked Cairen, assigned to the remote and neglected Palace of Eternal Harmony. Her family considers her a spare piece - useful only if needed. From the moment she crosses the vermilion gates, she accepts three rules: Endure. Observe. Disappear. But the palace is a place where those who disappear often survive longest. Frontier rebellion erupts. The emperor leads decisive campaigns. During wartime palace governance, Ying coordinates logistics, medical supply chains, and internal stability - without claiming authority. Her leadership becomes undeniable. After rebellion is crushed and the dynasty stabilized, Emperor Guixong issues the decree: Zongsun Ying is named Huanghou. The dynasty stabilizes. The sister who sought glory falls into obscurity. The sister who chose survival becomes legend. Histories later write: "He ruled the empire. She ruled the throne behind it." "In a garden of peonies, only the thorned stem survives winter."

In the empire of Liang, everyone knew one thing: The Crown Prince loved another woman. So when General Shen's eldest daughter, Shen Li Hua, was chosen to become Crown Princess, the entire capital pitied her. A loveless marriage. A cold husband. A palace already occupied by the prince's beloved first love. Everyone waited for Shen Li Hua to cry, to compete, to desperately fight for a man who had never wanted her. But Shen Li Hua did none of those things. Elegant, intelligent, and impossibly difficult to read, the new Crown Princess treated the Crown Prince with perfect courtesy- and absolute indifference. While other women fought for affection, Shen Li Hua guarded only one thing: her dignity. And slowly, dangerously... the Crown Prince began noticing the wife he had once ignored. "You may have the title of Crown Princess," Xiao Jun said coldly on their wedding night, "but you will never have my love." The palace fell silent. Beneath the glow of crimson candles, Shen Li Hua calmly removed the heavy phoenix crown from her head and placed it aside. Then she finally looked at him. Her eyes were beautiful. Cold too. "That changes nothing," she said lightly. "I married Your Highness for the crown, not your affection." Xiao Jun's expression darkened. Before he could speak again, she continued calmly, "So you may keep your love for whoever wishes to beg for it." A pause. Then- "Fortunately, I do not." For the first time in years, the Crown Prince was left completely speechless.

Lin Wei Xi found out after she died that she was just a cannon fodder in a novel, used as contrast to the gentle and considerate and virtuous female lead. The male lead was her ex-husband, the dignified heir of Yan Wang, his family were superior and brilliant, but the female lead was not her. The female lead was her concubine-born younger sister, and her husband's white moonlight, his cinnabar mole, no wonder! After Lin Wei Xi died, her husband finally married her sister as he wished. She watched coldly at the two like honey in the oil, in love and harmonious, everyone using the success of her younger sister to contrast the impropriety of the original wife. Lin Wei Xi sneered, okay, since your love moves the world, then this sister will come back and be your stepmother! So she married her ex-husband's father, the father-in-law she never met in the previous life, the country's God of war, who has not remarried after losing his wife, the one that hold military power, the brilliant Yan Wang. Later Yan Wang, who was in his prime years and used to act decisively, looked at his small, delicate, much younger wife, and had a headache. No matter, she is still young, he has to spoil her, indulge her, teach her. #drama #fantasy #romance #sliceoflife ✍️ September Flowing Flower

Betrayed by her emperor husband, her children slaughtered, and her noble family destroyed, Shen Miao dies with hatred in her heart, only to wake up as her 14-year-old self. This time, she'll rewrite her fate. Protect her family. Crush her enemies. And carve out her place in the empire. But she never expected him, the unruly young marquis who laughs at power and claims her with a smirk, "Take the world if you want... but you're mine."

In a palace where silence is safer than truth, Li Anya learns that death is not the end-it is a warning. Once a forgotten concubine, she lived her first life in quiet obedience, enduring the Emperor's cold cruelty and the Empress Dowager's disdain. Her existence was small, her voice unheard... until the night she was killed. No witnesses. No answers. Only betrayal lingering like poison in her final breath. But fate, it seems, is not finished with her. When Li Anya opens her eyes again, she is back in the same gilded cage, standing at the beginning of a life she has already lost. This time, she remembers the pain, the fear-and the certainty that someone close to the throne wanted her dead. Determined to survive, she treads carefully through a court of hidden daggers and smiling enemies. Yet everything begins to change when she discovers she is carrying the Emperor's child... and with it, a power she never held before. Favored by the very people who once despised her, Li Anya rises from shadow to prominence-but in the palace, kindness is often the most dangerous lie of all. Because somewhere behind silk curtains and whispered prayers, her killer is still waiting. And this time, Li Anya is no longer willing to die quietly.

The Emperor of Wei is often described as a heavenly being, unable to make any fault. He was described to be a god from those celestial stories, and many speak of his birth many years ago. They say that the sun peeked from the snowing and heavy clouds to catch a glimpse of his face. They say birds sang and flowers bloomed despite being in the winter, and all the animals in the world bowed down as he took his first breath. He is known as the legendary emperor. The one who leads the kingdom through battles and conflicts, floods and droughts. The one who has kept his kingdom fed and happy despite a war waging outside their city walls. How he became suddenly so powerful remains a secret unknown to the world. How he became suddenly so powerful despite already ruling for ten years is a secret the world wants to know. The man is a mystery and his complex empire is a puzzle. . . Who am I? I am the third child of the closest advisor to the emperor. Though I may seem to be the Illegitimate daughter who was sent to the countryside as a child, I am my father's favorite. After all- I was the one who gave my father fame, and the emperor his wisdom and empire. . And I, have secrets of my own. *completed* *this story is my original work* *IS IN THE PROCESS OF EDITING-- THERE WILL BE INCONSISTENCIES* #1 in China on April 26 2019 #1 in Ancient on April 26 2019 #1 in strategy on July 13 2019 #1 in historical fiction on July 27 2020

Wei Zifu, the second wife of Emperor Wu of Han, who rose from a poor singer to a powerful and respected empress. Her rise, fall from grace and survival in imperial harem. **** This story my is historically accurate. Please vote and give lots of love. **** 🪷Age gap 🪷Concubine 🪷 Pregnancy 🪷 Affair 🪷Patriarchy 🪷 Strong female lead 🪷 Harem