Rebirth As a Fatuous and Self-indulgent Ruler - Chapter 398: The Cruelty of War (III)

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

Five hundred years later, a superhuman talent cultivated by the state perished during a mission, and his soul transmigrated, taking possession of the body of a young master from a prominent family who suffered from an anxiety disorder. From that moment on, his extraordinary life began, spanning across various fields such as business and medicine. Wherever he set foot, others could only look up to him.

【Female Lead’s pleasure-seeking + high IQ palace intrigue + female lead schemes against the entire harem + crazy villain personality】

Song Zhao has always been a woman who spares no means to achieve her goals, and at the same time she lives more clearly than anyone else.

From the moment she knew she was chosen by Xiao Jingheng to enter the palace as a concubine, her goal has been very clear:

“I entered the palace just to become the Empress, why else? To go cook for someone else?”

Therefore, as soon as she entered the palace, relying on her beauty and wisdom, she took steps to win the monarch’s heart, and played with the six palaces in her palm.

Anyway, the women in this harem, for the sake of family, for their own favor and honor, there are none who do not compete and snatch,

Since this is the case, what she has to do is take preemptive action,

Make herself a villain, defeat everyone, and successfully ascend to the Phoenix throne.

At first, Emperor Xiao Jingheng favored Song Zhao, just because of her unparalleled beauty in the harem.

The favored concubines often become arrogant due to favoritism, but Song Zhao was different.

Not only did she not compete for favor, she always advised Xiao Jingheng to share his rain and dew evenly, and often go to other concubines.

Her attitude towards him in her daily life was also visibly perfunctory.

This inevitably made Xiao Jingheng suspicious, feeling that Song Zhao was not truly sincere towards him.

The innate desire to conquer that emperors possess made him secretly determine to completely possess this woman:

Not just her person, but her heart as well.

The process of conquering Song Zhao was like climbing the highest mountain in the world.

It’s just that Xiao Jingheng never thought:

When he climbed Mount Song Zhao, he willingly climbed it for a lifetime.

【No transmigration, no rebirth, no golden finger】