[Unhinged, arrogant, aloof minister] VS [food-loving, money-loving concubine-born daughter who longs for freedom]
When she was young, she kicked a dying beggar a few times beneath a great banyan tree, then magnanimously left him a silver bracelet and a bowl of noodles before walking away.
Later, her family tried to curry favor with the powerful by forcing her to marry an old man or a madman as a concubine. She was forced to write popular fiction to earn money and planned to flee far away, but the owner of a bookshop insisted that only a story about the capital's most mysterious minister could sell like hotcakes.
After an accident that nearly cost her life, she ended up aboard his ship.
The man who had once been starving and freezing on the brink of death had returned to the height of his power. He was willful, ruthless, volatile, and vindictive.
Everyone who had seen him in his former misery had met a gruesome end.
Terrified and tormented, she stayed up all night writing about his flaws and putting them in her story. Little did she know that once it hit the shelves, it caused an uproar. Everyone in the realm praised him as an extraordinary, almost divine figure...
Lian Yuzhi: What on earth happened?! That's not what I meant!
As they spent more and more time together, she couldn't tell when his gaze had begun to grow more and more undisguised, or when he had started showering her with affection...
At first, he gave her the creeps. Later, she found herself falling for him.
She said, "We're like clouds in the sky and mud on the ground. No matter how high I stand on my toes or how far I reach, I can never touch you. We're not meant to be. Let me go, and let me roam free beneath the open sky."
He smiled. "You don't have to stand on tiptoe or stretch your arms as far as you can. If you wish it, I'll bend down and kneel to meet you whenever you want. You alone will be my legal wife, and nothing will ever change that, not even death."
"If you still refuse, then I'll have no choice but to turn the Duke's mansion into your prison. I'll make you bear my children and spend the rest of your life with me..."
Overall it's pretty good, but some settings are a bit unrealistic, that is, the love of the male protagonist comes suddenly.