Willow Shadows Along the Palace Walls: The Gentle Prince's Unconventional Contract Bride

Su Qinghuan, a disgraced concubine banished to the Cold Palace, has only just “awakened” when she learns she is a cannon-fodder NPC in a palace-intrigue drama. To stay alive, she seizes her only chance and marries Xiao Jingyuan, the palace’s most effeminate and least favored idle prince, signing a one-year marriage contract. They plan to use each other and live in peace, but trouble keeps coming: local thugs extort them with bogus claims, prejudiced officials make things difficult at every turn, and hidden traitors see them as a thorn in their side. Su Qinghuan turns the tables, taking on the thugs, challenging prejudice, and exposing traitors, leaving chaos in her wake. Xiao Jingyuan seems effeminate, yet is always clearing obstacles for her behind the scenes. As their contractual relationship gradually changes, the secret of the NPC’s awakening is also on the verge of being exposed. Amid the palace’s dangerous intrigues, can the two go from using each other to fighting side by side?