Consort, Don't Make Me Slap You!

[Sweet and angsty + playing dumb while hiding a sharp mind + marriage first, love later + aloof schemer + a long road to winning his wife back]

When the imperial decree arrives, Li Changning is in her nightclothes, painting portraits of her male companions.

“Your Highness, the Emperor has arranged your marriage to the Grand Tutor’s son!”

She flings down her brush. “That sickly weakling who coughs up five basins of blood every three steps?”

That very night, she packs her valuables and prepares to flee the wedding. But as she climbs the wall, she tumbles into a warm embrace. The man grips her waist and chuckles. “Where are you off to, Your Highness? Sneaking away to meet your lover?”

Later, all of Chang’an is abuzz with rumors that the princess has mended her ways for love and now personally brews nourishing tonic soup for her husband every day.

Li Changning rubs her aching waist and grits her teeth. “That soup is for the dog! He can’t do it!”

A familiar cough suddenly comes from behind the screen. “Oh? Are you sure about that, Your Highness?”

She pulls out every trick in the book and finally wins back her freedom! Disguised as the “Demon Queller” princess, she investigates a case deep within the palace. What truth will that striking figure uncover next? Through bleary, drunken eyes, she lifts the silver mask from the face of the mysterious, ruthless chief of the powerful secret guards in the hot spring pool... Huh? That face! Isn’t this her dead former prince consort, whose grave grass must be three meters tall by now?

A smile curls his lips, and his gentle voice sends a chill down her spine. “Over the past two years, Your Highness’s ‘ledger of good deeds’ has been quite something: spending money like water, partying every night, and making plenty of ‘close friends.’ Truly... spec-tac-u-lar!”

She watches him coldly. “So the dead can rise now? Sorry, who are you? Don’t you dare come any closer!”