Mei Yanran had always been somewhat of a fool.
Her friends called her out on it while her parents fretted over her airhead tendencies, but all to no avail. Of course, if you asked Mei Yanran (梅嫣然) herself, she'd deny it. There were plenty of things that she dedicated her attentions to--hobbies and the like, such as her favorite webnovel, Conspiracies of the Northern Court.
It was a typical historical romance (no transmigration, though!) set in an alternate version of ancient China, where an intelligent and beautiful female lead ended up embroiled in the struggles for the imperial throne while weaving through a crowd of eligible love interests. Though Mei Yanran adored both the female lead and her main male lead, her true love was reserved for a supporting male character who never fell in love with the main character at all.
His name was Ling Fengxiao (凌風嘯), the male lead's childhood friend who became Prime Minister after the main couple ascended the throne as emperor and empress two-thirds of the way into the story. If the male and female leads were like the sun and moon, then Ling Fengxiao was the shadows cast by both. Enigmatic, cold, and utterly isolated, he was the one who did all the dirty work behind the scenes to ensure a smooth reign for the fledgling dynasty. Moreover, many of his deeds were done off-screen or alluded to by the other characters, only heightening his mysterious personality.
In terms of pairings with other characters, Ling Fengxiao was only ranked fifth with the female lead amongst the readers (after the male lead, the female lead's second cousin, a kindly doctor from the jianghu who'd once saved her life, and some charming rogue who was secretly the prince of a different kingdom). He was more popularly paired with the male lead due to their childhood ties and a quote he once said in the story, "You will always be the emperor to them, but forever Shuyang to me."
Shuyang (叔陽) was the male lead's courtesy name, which fell out of use once he became the sovereign. Ling Fengxiao was one of the only people at his side who persisted in using the moniker.
Needless to say, Mei Yanran didn't support any of Ling Fengxiao's ships, because she wanted the man for herself! Not just because he was handsome, powerful, and cool, but because of the glimpses of vulnerabilities she'd seen in him throughout the story.
How he gave alms to the poor because he had grown up in a poor family.
How he liked to admire the plum blossoms with warm wine after the first snow, and even built his estate by a mountain filled with plum blossom trees.
How in a single moment of loneliness, his fingers clutching his seat had shook as he watched a dancer express her loveliness on stage.
They were little, insignificant details, but they captured the imagination of a girl like Mei Yanran, especially the last bit--since she was a dancer herself. Anyone who could be moved by such physical poetry of the soul had to have a living, beating human heart beneath all that ice.
And so, this leads us to the present. Mei Yanran, having long read spoilers about Ling Fengxiao and how he ended up (utterly) alone at the end of the novel, was now in a depressed funk. The character who never seemed to get any thanks, who bore his burdens quietly and even took on a bad reputation amongst his peers in an effort to gather strength for his best friend's nation, lived on in the story with a lonely title and nobody to stay by his side.
Mei Yanran couldn't accept it! Even the female lead's rejected love interests had gotten their own happy endings. Why did Ling Fengxiao have to get the short end of the stick when he'd done more than all of them combined?! She was now browsing through fanfiction to soothe her injured heart, but there were so many Ling Fengxiao x Male Lead stories that she was buried in them all. Where was her happy marriage ending with lots and lots of beautiful babies?!
Ahhh!! Author, you're too cruel!
It wasn't until she got to page 23 of the Conspiracies of the Northern Court fanfiction forum that she finally found something slightly different: a self-insert fic with the reader as Ling Fengxiao's love interest, written by someone called goddess0fates. Mei Yanran was so excited that she clicked on it right away. Unfortunately, she forgot that she was still walking and headed straight into the intersection when the lights were still green. No truck came to finish her off, but a double-decker tourist bus still hurt plenty.
-ooo-
