Prince, Your Slacker Princess Consort Is Skiving Off Again

“Sweet romance” + “humor” + “opposites attract” + “feel-good revenge.” The Great Sheng Dynasty has an absurd pair: the male lead, Li Tiezhu, is every bit as tough as his name suggests, a battle-hardened Marquis of Zhenbei who can pin the barbarians to the ground, yet he stubbornly follows rules like “eat at the hour of the rabbit, work at noon.” Even his name sounds down-to-earth, like “the old man who feeds the horses at the village entrance.” The female lead, Wang Cuihua, is a street vendor who scrapes by selling sweet rice cakes. Her philosophy is “as long as I don't starve, there's no need to make life harder than it has to be.” Even after being carried off to the marquis's manor, her first thought is, “This bed's softer than the one in my shack. I'll mooch meals here for a few days.”

A “Hongmen banquet” arranged by the Empress leaves Li Tiezhu drunk on spiked wine. A dim-witted guard named Gousheng mistakenly carries Wang Cuihua back to the manor, and the two somehow end up having a “one-night fling.” Li Tiezhu plans to follow the rules and give her some money to send her away, but Wang Cuihua surprises him by applying for a job as a household servant. She then launches into all kinds of ways to slack off: sweeping only the parts of the courtyard visitors can see, pretending not to notice the dust between the table slats, and sneaking pastries from the kitchen while daring to teach the cook how to make sweet rice cakes.

Even more absurdly, this laid-back wife has a talent for “beating people at their own game.” When Miss Liu mocks her, saying, “A sweet-rice-cake seller doesn't belong in the marquis's manor,” she nods and says, “Please help me quit, Miss Liu. I can go back to selling cakes.” When the Empress accuses her of stealing, she pulls out her battered bundle: “It's just a few old clothes. I can't even tell the manor's treasures apart.” Even when the Crown Prince tries to frame Li Tiezhu, she easily turns the tables with information from customers at the sweet rice cake shop.

And the iron-blooded Marquis Li Tiezhu gradually gets pulled into Wang Cuihua's lie-flat philosophy. Instead of “practicing swordsmanship before dawn,” he starts “waiting until his wife brings him sweet rice cakes before getting up.” In short, it's hilarious, and...