Strong heroine + scheming hero + jaw-dropping twists + angst before sweetness
Ling Shuangyue, the Prince of Zhenbei, commanded a mighty army and was decisive and ruthless. On her very first day back in the capital to report on her duties, a spoiled young lord blocked her way.
Pei Yanzhi was the laughingstock of the capital, good for nothing except his handsome face. Yet he fell in love with her at first sight and wouldn’t leave her alone. Everyone in the capital knew he was pursuing the cold-faced King of Hell.
“Your Highness, accept this treasured blade, and you’ll have my heart.”
“Get lost.”
She hated how annoying he was, how he made a scene, how he seemed impossible to shake.
Until she was framed at court, and at the critical moment, that good-for-nothing who usually did nothing but crack jokes fought his way through a river of blood, sword in hand.
“Your Highness, I was putting on an act.”
He wiped the blood from his face, grinning like a cat that had stolen a treat.
“I was acting like a spoiled wastrel, and nothing else.”
“But my feelings for you are real.”
He spent ten years plotting to protect her, repaying the life debt from when she saved him in the snow a decade ago.
Her coldness and his warmth had both been hidden beneath a grand game of strategy.
When every disguise is torn away and the truth is laid bare, is he her pawn, or her doom?
