A Thousand Autumns for You

An imperial decree betrothed Xie Yao to the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace. The mighty Prince Xie’s Manor had fallen. Like duckweed adrift in a storm, Xie Yao entered mourning for a hundred days before marrying into the Eastern Palace. For a time, everyone pitied her, and everyone laughed at her. They pitied her for being an orphan with no one to rely on. They laughed because the Crown Prince was frail and perpetually ill, and the position of heir to the throne seemed destined to change hands sooner or later. In their eyes, it was nothing more than an orphan girl paired with a sickly man, inevitably ending with her becoming a pitiful young widow and spending the rest of her days guarding ancestral spirit tablets. After entering the Eastern Palace, Xie Yao kept an exceptionally low profile and made herself as inconspicuous as possible. Her original plan was simple: maintain a respectful, distant marriage with this gentle, sickly Crown Prince. Whether he eventually died of illness or ascended the throne, she would be able to live out the rest of her life peacefully and without trouble. Who could have guessed that one day Gu Changze would summon her to attend him during an illness? First came the headaches. Then the high fever. Then the coughing up of blood. With no other choice, she stayed by his side day and night, personally caring for him. Before long, they were sharing the same bed every night. The next day, he politely declined the Emperor’s suggestion that he take concubines, claiming that his prolonged illness made him unwilling to burden anyone else. “Having one Crown Princess in the Eastern Palace is enough.” As a result, while the public lamented that the sickly Crown Prince would likely die young, rumors spread just as rapidly that he doted on his Crown Princess. The two were always seen together, the very image of a devoted couple. As the gossip grew more outrageous, Xie Yao worried Gu Changze might gain a reputation for being afraid of his wife, so she gently brought it up. Gu Changze merely smiled warmly. “I’ve been ill for years and don’t wish to burden you. If I die one day, I’ll ask Father Emperor to restore your freedom.” “As for those rumors, people outside are simply talking nonsense. Just wait a little. I’ll have someone put a stop to them.” But Xie Yao waited and waited. She never saw Gu Changze die. Nor did they continue as merely respectful spouses. Instead, she watched him recover. Then watched him kill his brothers, seize the throne, and ascend as Emperor. And before the entire court, he draped the phoenix robes of an Empress over her shoulders. Xie Yao: Wait… wasn’t he supposed to be sickly?! On the day of the palace coup, blood flowed across the ground and pooled at Xie Yao’s feet. The man, his back to her, withdrew his sword from the Sixth Prince’s chest. When he turned around, their eyes met. Terrified, Xie Yao shrank back instinctively. Gu Changze casually wiped the blood from his hands, stepped over the corpses littering the ground, and walked to her side. Then he pressed a cold kiss to her forehead. “Don’t be afraid.” Only then did she realize the truth. Those rumors had originated from the Eastern Palace’s own study. The gentle, harmless persona he presented to the world was merely a disguise concealing his ruthless and sinister nature. How could there possibly be a rumor he couldn’t suppress? The only reason they spread so wildly was that he enjoyed hearing them. As for restoring her freedom one day? That had been nothing but empty words. From the very beginning, he had wanted her— for a long, long time. He had planned it all meticulously, and he had never intended to let her go. “She walked beside me through endless nights, witnessed the drifting snow, the struggle for imperial power, and the clash of steel and conquest. From Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace to ruler of all under Heaven.” A sweet arranged-marriage romance that develops into love after marriage. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: A Thousand Autumns for You — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠