She Sought the Princess’s Hand in Marriage as a Woman

Two female leads + only each other + both devoted and chaste + scheming + secret identities

The fiercely competitive fifth daughter of a general's family, lost for years VS the gentle, calculating ninth princess who plots from behind the scenes

Chu Lingshuang, the fifth daughter of the general's family, had been missing for years. She was found and brought home at sixteen. When she attended the Hundred Flowers Banquet for the first time, she expected to face hostility, but instead encountered the emperor and empress's ninth daughter.

Chu Lingshuang stared at her in shock. Wasn't this the Ninth Girl she'd rescued before? She was the ninth princess?

Shangguan Fuyao, the emperor and empress's ninth daughter, had jumped off a cliff after being pursued by assassins and was rescued by Chu Lingshuang. The two spent three months together day and night, until Fuyao left because the empress was gravely ill. Before leaving, she gave Chu Lingshuang a jade pendant and a letter.

They met again at the Hundred Flowers Banquet. Fuyao thought the young woman seemed different from before. The girl who used to get so riled up whenever Fuyao teased her now seemed like a completely different person.

Then, one day, the Northern Kingdom invaded and declared it would withdraw its troops only if the ninth princess married into its royal family.

Chu Lingshuang knelt before the throne in the Golden Hall and spoke each word with the utmost resolve. “I, your humble subject, ask to marry Her Highness, the ninth princess. I am willing to go to the border and reclaim our lost territory.” The court was stunned. No one had expected her to dare say such a thing. A woman asking to marry a princess was unheard of.

Chu Lingshuang reclaimed lost territory on the front lines, while Shangguan Fuyao secured provisions behind them.

They achieved it all: “If you never abandon me, I will stand by you in life and death.” They went on to break the deeply rooted shackles forbidding women from serving as officials, becoming generals, and marrying one another.

Five years later, the emperor decreed that men and women alike could enter government service, and that marriage was not limited by gender. All that mattered was that the two people loved each other.