The White-Haired Imperial Concubine (Princess Silver) 白发皇妃 (白发王妃) by 莫言殇 Mo Yan Shang (OE)

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• Wow..... Can someone spoil this a little for me? Sounds heart breaking...

• Hm, has anyone read this? How does it compare to 夜妖娆 by the same author? I read part of 夜妖娆 but dropped it at around 30%.

• I an also curious to find out how forced-love-making can bleach hair so I skim through the story and here it goes.

  [spoiler]
  She is a time traveler who became Princess Rong Le (aka Man Yao) after she died in the present. Princess Rong Le is supposed to marry the 7th Prince (aka Zhong Zhen Wu You) from another kingdom but he rejected the marriage in her (veiled) face. As she is not keen on the political marriage either, Princess Rong Le suggests that the Emperor give 7th Prince and herself 6 months to know each other better. If 7th Prince still refuses to marry her after 6 months, she will then choose from the other eligible bachelors to marry, which can either be a young, upcoming General or the 9th Prince at that point in time.
  Once out of court, Princess Rong Le assumes the identity of Man Yao and sets up a tea house in the capital. Man Yao charms the socks off the cold, handsome Wu You but he did not realize that he has fallen for her. After Wu You learns that Man Yao is Princess Rong Le, he made use of her and causes her to lose faith in him.
  Man Yao ends up marrying the General but they had a platonic marriage. The General falls in love with Man Yao but not enough not to make use of her (too). Turns out that the General is also the Emperor’s son and he wanted revenge on the Emperor for killing his mother and forsaking him.
  Both potential heirs for the throne tried to take the throne and Zhong Zhen Wu You nearly won. However General threatened him with Man Yao’s life which turned the tide. Man Yao has been force-fed some sicko-poison and to save her life, she must take an antidote before mating like crazy, or else she dies. The General staged an arena of red curtains and forced Man Yao and Wu You to make love with 10,000 soldiers watching. Even though his army can overtake the General and his men, Wu You cannot afford for General to smash the antidote to the ground and so he surrendered.
  The General had thought that the woman in the arena was an imposter who looks like Man Yao but when Man Yao survived the ordeal and came out from behind the red curtains with a head of snowy, messy white, he was truly shocked. “Why…why is it you?!”. Later, Man Yao told him that she has started to trust him in the few months that they are together and has nearly fallen in love with him. But after her ordeal, she now knows who truly loves her - enough to forsake a kingdom and his pride - and swears to be with Wu You forever.
  The first half of the book ended with the General becoming the North Emperor while Zhong Zhen Wu You declared himself the South Emperor. Man Yao becomes Wu You’s one and only royal concubine while the North Emperor never started his harem, hoping that one day, Man Yao will return. Then comes a lot of war, treachery, deceit. Some which tears Man Yao and Wu You apart, some which brings them closer but in the end Man Yao died….. and came back to life (in yet another body) to live happy ever after with Wu You.
  [/spoiler]

  A pretty engaging, but long, angsty story. Loved how Wu You loves her but it is incredulous how many other emperors love her. Besides the North Emperor, there is also Man Yao's brother (Emperor of some dunno-what country) and another Emperor who owns a lot of horses. How can so many men be so deeply in love with one woman? No doubt she is pretty and capable but she has WHITE HAIR dudes, not to mention a powerful husband. I can do without all the angst in the second half which comes from war and battle for power and if you can stand not reading the whole book, I think the first half (about 50-over chapters or so) would be good enough. At least, until she becomes the White Hair concubine.

• Does anyone know what the vietnamese translation is called?

• [spoiler]
  The female lead is a girl, Man Yao, who time travelled from modern China back to a unknown dynasty. She becomes princess Rong Le of Qi Yun, and her brother, Rong Qi, is the emperor.

  Man Yao is sent to Lin Tian for a political marriage with the 7th prince, Zong Zheng Wu You. However, he refuses to marry her, not even bothering to look at her face. Man Yao asks the emperor of Lin Tian for half a year of freedom before marrying to her chosen husband.

  Through a series of events, Man Yao falls in love with Zong Zheng Wu You who also falls for her without knowing her real identity. When someone pretends to be Man Yao and picks the general of Lin Tian, Fu Chou, to be her husband, Man Yao makes up her mind to tell Zong Zheng Wu You the truth. That night he took her innocence. When she woke up she found out that Wu You was just using her to complete the final stage of his martial arts.

  Man Yao chooses to marry Fu Chou, because she can’t bear being used by the man she loves. Thus the two are separated for a year. Fu Chou treats her very well, and eventually she decides that she can give him a chance. But he commits a mistake that forever tore the two of them apart and sent her into the arms of Zong Zheng Wu You.

  Man Yao decides to help Wu You conquer the world.

  Everything that has happened was constructed by the dowager empress of Qi Yun for revenge. Fu Chou and Wu You are actually brothers.

  However, it turns out that Man Yao has been poisoned with a poison that is incurable.Her brother Rong Qi sacrifices himself to save her. She regained her memories when she saw his body and learned the truth about who she really was. She wasn’t the real Rong Le and her first love was Rong Qi. Zong Zheng Wu You can’t accept the fact that he isn’t the only one in her heart and leaves her for two years to focus on conquering the world. When he comes back he finds out that she has died.

  In the epilogue we find out, that 5 years later, Man Yao finds a new body and returns to Wu You. Sadly Fu Chou never recovers from his shock and pain and in the end he becomes a wandering monk. He is still trying to make up to his brother and is caring for a plant that will turn Wu You’s hair back to black.

  This novel was a tragedy. So many things happened to the characters. I feel that if Man Yao and Wu You had both been not so prideful, they would have had a happier ending. But at the same time, if they hadn’t been so prideful they wouldn’t have the charisma they have.

  I truly feel sorry for Fu Chou, he ended up living a lie for 20 years. For 20 years all he knew as revenge, but in the end his revenge never existed and he lost his only love as well.

  The person that struck me as the most tragic was Rong Qi. He was the only one who gave Man Yao a pure love, asking nothing in return from her. Rong Qi gave everything for Man Yao including his life, but he never heard her say any words of love to him. He had no regrets in his life, just meeting and loving her was even for him. His one regret is not being able to hear Man Yao call him “Qi gege” once before he died. His love will never find a way out.

  [/spoiler]

• Does anyone know if at the end, is she with the princes Li?

• Bump up because the drama is so good! Would love someone to share more tidbits from the novel vs drama!

• So novel vs drama: #spoiler# they move a lot of events up like the hair turning to black again, the finding out he was lied to, no time travel, changes the identity of her father from minor general to prime minister- all the major events are there they just might not be in the order of the book. #spoiler#

• Thanks @Cocoa! I think the actors/actresses have been cast well, especially Jing Chao who is the General. I haven't fallen so hard for a 2nd Lead in a long time! All three male leads have such crazy backstories. I can't imagine reading the novel without screaming at the injustice everyone has to go through!

• Seen the tv drama. Good series.