Top pairing: Crown Prince Gongyi Fei (courtesy name Yuanyi) × Crown Princess Yan Qinghe (courtesy name Minglan)
During the peaceful years of the Great Yan dynasty, the ailing Crown Prince Gongyi Fei marries Yan Qinghe, who comes from a fallen aristocratic family. On their wedding night, Gongyi Fei coughs up blood and collapses against his crown princess’s shoulder. Outsiders say heaven is jealous of his talent, never suspecting the deep scheming that stirs beneath those gentle eyes whenever they lower.
Yan Qinghe thinks that marrying into the Eastern Palace simply means spending his days in lonely quiet somewhere new, until he discovers that the Crown Prince needs to lean against his shoulder every night to sleep, that the Crown Prince can quietly make his political rivals fall into their own traps at court, and that when Yan Qinghe is still checking the accounts late into the night, the Crown Prince uses his seemingly feeble hands to drape a coat over him before smiling and nibbling his earlobe. “Ahe, it’s time to rest.”
Life in the Eastern Palace is half political intrigue and deadly struggles at court, half the tender intimacy they share when alone.
Gongyi Fei uses his “frailty” as the perfect disguise, while Yan Qinghe builds his deepest walls with “aloofness.” But when night falls, those walls crumble and the disguise comes off, leaving only the warmth of their embrace.
Sometimes, Gongyi Fei brings up how he defied all opposition back then and won Yan Qinghe’s hand in a brilliant battle of wits. Yan Qinghe listens quietly, then suddenly says, at an unexpected moment, “Ayi, you schemed against everyone, but never against my heart.”
Gongyi Fei chuckles and coughs twice. “Because your heart has been mine for a long time.”
This is the everyday life of a calculating, frail crown prince and his cool-headed, clever crown princess: thrilling political maneuvering, warm memories of childhood, and the sweet moments that belong only to the Eastern Palace in the deep of night.
