After Becoming a Bootlicker in the Marquis's Household, the Living Yama Bows to Me

[Unhinged black-lotus Commander-in-Chief x sweet-looking but secretly calculating, clear-headed beauty who knows how to lure men | Devoted to each other, mutually baiting each other + political scheming and face-slapping]

Jiang Xuezhao is reborn as the laughingstock of the whole capital.

Her former self had grovelled before the young heir of the marquis's estate. On the night her corpse was abandoned in a mass grave, a cold blade beneath an umbrella pressed against her throat.

The Commander-in-Chief, rumored to make lanterns from the skin of his victims, smiled. "After killing someone, Miss Jiang still has time to admire the moon?"

Later...

She uses salt permits to empty half the national treasury, while three thousand Black Armored soldiers smash the aristocratic clans' conspiracy to pieces.

He kneels in the snow to put on her shoes, then points his sword at the assembled ministers. "You dirtied my wife's shoes. Are you all prepared to pay with your lives?"

The entire court says Yan Chenxiao is the emperor's lackey, but they don't know this:

"The one who broke the young general's pride was the very ruler you all hail as emperor."

She cleanses his bloodstained hands; he burns away every slur cast upon her.

"Zhaozhao wants to kill someone? That knife's too dull. Use mine."

"Want to see an estate confiscated? We'll go to Prince Zhao's residence tomorrow."

Short scene:

Jiang Xuezhao, tipsy and bleary-eyed, tugs open the man's jade belt. "Lord Yan's waist... is slimmer than last time."

The outwardly proper Commander-in-Chief pins her beneath the brocade quilt, his fingers tracing her shoulder blades. "A thorough inspection is necessary, my lady."

The next day, she rubs her sore waist and kicks him out of bed, only to see the powerful official in his red robe and jade belt calmly fastening his belt.

"Last night, Zhaozhao was the one who lit the fire first."

She says, "Yan Chenxiao, I have another motive for getting close to you."

He says, "Jiang Xuezhao, I was always the ladder you needed to reach the heavens."

#The black-lotus hero is a hopeless romantic at heart#

#The noble, radiant second male lead creeps around in the shadows#