Chapter Text
Note: This is a continuation of How Dare You (Live Action), not the novel, so there are some differences between the two versions.
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The subway doors slid open with a mechanical sigh, and the crowd poured in like a tide that never asked permission.
Beijing, 2025.
Wang Cuihua stood at the center of the train, hearing the birthday song sung by the mother and daughter who were sitting nearby. The same song she was hearing when she was transported inside the novel. She was still wearing the long brown trench coat that draped softly over her frame, layered over a crisp white blouse, a simple gray knit vest and a black skirt. She still has her found glasses framed on her face.
To anyone else, she was just another office worker rushing home after overtime.
But her heart was still adjusting to a world that no longer called her Your Majesty.
Just hours ago—no, seconds ago—she had been inside the imperial palace watching the fireworks with Xiao Houdan.
The scent of sandalwood. The rustle of silk robes. The echo of the fireworks. The warmth of his hand against hers as he stood beside her.
Then—
White light.
A tearing sensation.
And she was back here.
Back to fluorescent lights and train announcements.
Back to a life that had apparently “paused” for years.
Her phone showed the date clearly: October 18, 2025. It’s still her birthday.
She hadn’t aged a day.
It was as if time had waited for her to finish loving him.
Her chest tightened.
Zhang San…
She found the book opened lying on the train floor.
The Devil’s Beloved Consort.
The novel that had swallowed her whole.
She froze.
No one noticed at first.
Then a polished leather shoe stepped forward.
A hand—long, elegant fingers, familiar in a way that made her breath stutter—picked up the book.
Cuihua’s gaze slowly followed the hand upward.
Dark long coat over gray shirt.
Expensive watch.
Calm, commanding presence without effort.
And then—
His face.
Zhang San.
But not the emperor draped in dragon robes.
Not the emperor hiding his power behind lazy smiles.
This was a modern man—sharp jawline, composed eyes, the faintest trace of maturity carved into his expression. Nine years older than the boy who had entered the novel in 2016.
Nine years of waiting.
He held the book between them, his thumb resting against its spine.
For a moment, the world went silent.
The train.
The announcements.
Gone.
He looked at her the same way he had on the first day inside the novel—when she had been terrified, confused, clinging to survival.
And he asked softly:
“How are you?”
It was the exact same question.
The same tone.
The same steadiness.
Inside the novel, she had asked him that when she was shaking under fear alone in the unknown place.
Back then, she had asked bravely, even though she was confused.
Now, her lips trembled slightly.
But she smiled.
“I’m fine, thank you… and you?”
Her voice was polite.
Controlled.
As if they were strangers making small talk.
But her eyes betrayed her.
They were already glossy.
Zhang San’s composure cracked for half a second.
Just half.
Then he smiled and extended his hand to give the book to Cuihua.
“I’ve been better.”
The train slowed into the next station, but neither of them moved.
Cuihua’s extended her hand to get the book.
“You…” she whispered, barely audible. “You’re here.”
“I never left.”
Her heart skipped violently.
He leaned slightly closer—not enough to invade her space, just enough so only she could hear him.
“Welcome back, Empress.”
Her breath hitched.
“Don’t call me that here,” she said quickly, glancing around in panic.
His eyes softened.
“Then… Cuihua.”
The way he said her name—low, steady, as if he had spoken it a thousand times in the quiet of an empty palace—made her chest ache.
“You remember everything?” she asked.
“I remember every single day.”
The train doors opened.
Passengers pushed past them.
Still, they didn’t move.
“You went back first,” she said suddenly, realization dawning. “When the novel ended… you disappeared before I did.”
He nodded.
“2016.”
Her eyes widened.
“You…”
“I returned to the year I first entered the book,” he explained calmly. “As if those years inside never happened.”
“But they did,” she whispered.
“They did,” he agreed. “For me.”
He continued, voice steady.
“I found you.”
Her heart stopped.
“In 2016. You were in your junior high too. You hadn’t entered the novel yet. You didn’t know me.”
Her lips parted.
“I wanted to approach you,” he said. “But I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because it wasn’t time.”
His gaze was unwavering.
“If I interfered, maybe you wouldn’t enter the novel. Maybe we wouldn’t meet again. I couldn’t risk losing you.”
Cuihua felt tears spill over despite herself.
“So you just… watched?”
“Yes.”
“For nine years?”
“For nine years.”
A passenger bumped into Zhang San and his hand brushed hers in the process.
Electric.
Real.
Warm.
“You waited?” she asked, her voice trembling now.
“I built everything while I waited.”
She blinked.
“What do you mean?”
“I started investing. Carefully. Strategically.” A faint smile tugged at his lips. “An emperor does not return without resources.”
Her eyes widened.
“You’re—”
“CEO of Shengyuan Capital.”
Her brain scrambled to catch up.
The influential investment company that had been trending in business news?
“That was you?”
“It is.”
“And all this time—”
“I was waiting for October 18, 2025.”
Her knees nearly gave out.
“How did you know the date?”
He tapped the cover of the book.
“You told me you were transported on your birthday.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“I’ll never forget your birthday”
Silence enveloped them.
Finally, the doors closed again, and the train began moving again.
They were still standing too close.
Too aware.
Too in love.
“Cuihua,” he said gently.
She looked up.
His expression changed—no longer the calculating emperor.
No longer the composed CEO.
Just him.
Just the man who had knelt in the imperial garden under fireworks and proposed in a way she would understand.
Inside the novel…
Under the fireworks light, he had taken out something...
A golden ring.
“Kneeling is common in our world,” he had said then. “This is how our world does it, right?”
And now—
In the moving train, surrounded by strangers, he did something reckless.
He stepped back slightly.
Then slowly—
He lowered himself onto one knee.
Gasps erupted around them.
Phones immediately lifted.
Cuihua’s eyes widened in panic.
“Zhang San—what are you doing?!”
He looked up at her with unwavering devotion.
“Cuihua,” he said, his voice steady even in the chaos. “I already made you my empress once.”
His hand slipped into his coat pocket.
“And I promised you I would propose to you properly in the real world.”
He opened the velvet box.
A diamond ring caught the fluorescent light.
“Will you marry me again?”
Her vision blurred completely.
“You…” she whispered, voice breaking. “You idiot.”
A tear slid down her cheek.
The train roared forward.
The world held its breath.
“Zhang San,” she said softly, kneeling down to his level despite the stunned audience.
“Yes?”
“How dare you… make me fall in love with you twice?”
His lips curved.
“Then fall for me one more time.”
She laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
But he heard it.
He always heard her.
The train erupted in cheers.
And as he slid the ring onto her finger, Cuihua realized something:
They had fought fate inside a novel.
They had fought time in reality.
And now—
They were no longer characters.
No longer transmigrators.
No longer emperor and empress.
Just Wang Cuihua.
And Zhang San.
Two people who had dared to love across worlds.
And won.
To be continued...
Author’s Note:
I genuinely cannot get over How Dare You (live action). I tried. I told myself I would move on. I rewatched scenes “just once.” I replayed that train moment in my head a hundred of times. I listened to the OST while pretending I was fine.
I am not fine.
So I had to write this.
This fanfiction is my way of coping, of breathing, of staying a little longer in the universe that refused to leave me. But instead of palace corridors and dragon robes, I needed to see Zhang San and Wang Cuihua in modern reality—under fluorescent subway lights, with business headlines instead of imperial edicts, with diamond rings instead of golden ones… and yet somehow still the same soul-deep devotion.
Chapter 1, “The Train That Stopped Time,” means so much to me. The idea that Cuihua returns on her birthday. That she hasn’t aged a day. That time literally waited for her to finish loving him. That Zhang San went back first in 2016 and chose to wait nine entire years without interfering because he was afraid of losing her again. That kind of love is reckless. Strategic. Emperor-level patience.
And him building Shengyuan Capital while waiting? Of course he would. An emperor never returns unprepared.
My favorite part—no, the part that destroyed me—was when he knelt on one knee in the subway. Surrounded by strangers. Surrounded by noise. Still unwavering. “I already made you my empress once.” The audacity. The devotion. The quiet promise he made under fireworks finally fulfilled under train lights.
And her line — “How dare you make me fall in love with you twice?” — that is the entire drama in one sentence.
This story is a continuation of the live-action version, not the novel, so there will be differences. The dynamics are shaped by the performances, by the subtle glances, by the way the actors carried longing in silence. I’m writing from that place.
I don’t know how long this fanfiction will be. I just know I’m not done with them. I’m not done watching Zhang San love like an emperor in a world that no longer calls him one. I’m not done seeing Cuihua learn how to live without being “Your Majesty” while still being cherished like she is.
If you’re reading this, it probably means you’re not over it either.
So let’s fall in love with them one more time.
— A writer who dared not move on