After Romancing the Tyrant, She Quit the Game

Yun Jichu tossed the resignation letter aside and flopped onto the bed, clutching her tablet as she opened the long-neglected page of her web game.

– Tap to claim Returning Gift Pack.

~~~

Helian Jin had been a widower for five years. Once a gentle prince as warm as jade, he had transformed into the tyrannical, brooding emperor of today. Night after night, he slept before the memorial tablet of his late wife, and no one dared draw near.

Everyone said that little maid from back then had been blessed with incredible luck—not only winning the prince’s undivided devotion but also bearing him a son and daughter.

“I say she must have had shallow blessings. With such a promising future ahead, why did she drop dead like that?”

“You trying to get yourself killed? Daring to gossip about the Late Empress!”

“Tomorrow’s the grand selection. Wonder if His Majesty will slaughter them all like in years past.”

Incense smoke curled lazily through the hall as Helian Jin toyed with a rough-hewn jade pendant, slouching against the Dragon Throne. With an impatient flick of his hand, he waved them off.

The eunuch paled and trembled, scrambling to usher the line of showgirls from the hall.

“Hold.”

The emperor pointed lazily into the distance, his gaze dark and ominous. The woman at the tail end of the procession was stunning, her beauty even more radiant than it had been five years ago.

“You. Come here.”

~~~

The game’s difficulty had plummeted. The imperial selection that once demanded heaps of cash to clear now handed her the empress position on a silver platter?

The jade pendant from daily sign-ins, always spurned before, was now treasured beyond measure?

One midnight, Yun Jichu stirred from sleep to find Helian Jin wrapped around her, his fingers tracing her cheek. His eyes gleamed with tender agony as he murmured:

“Ah Chu, my wife… You’ve truly… come back.

That night, after heaven knew how many times, Yun Jichu drew her robes closed. “It’s late, Your Majesty. Rest well. Your concubine will return to—”

Her chambers. To save the game!

But the emperor clamped onto her pale wrist and pinned her back to the dragon bed. “Let you go, only for you to vanish into thin air again—like five years ago?”

“Our perfect harmony, our children—for you, was it all just—a game?”