[Two male leads + forced love + yandere + obsessive + redemption + two couples + both couples’ first relationships]
Main couple: cool and gentle chancellor’s son, the shou ✖ unruly crown prince, the gong
Secondary couple: gloomy and repressed general’s son, the shou ✖ upright and principled academy head, the gong
They received the same honor, but their circumstances could not have been more different.
Xie Huai was a once-in-a-generation genius, admired by everyone. Even the high-and-mighty crown prince bowed to him.
Xie Huai thought it was because of his talent, his good fortune, or perhaps because he had caught the crown prince’s eye. He had no idea that the prince had been making every move with care, slowly building a cage around him.
The crown prince’s affection had always been bold and undisguised. Xie Huai had overlooked it for far too long, mistaking it for nothing more than the bond between ruler and subject.
As the son of a general, Huaidong should have been cherished and respected. Instead, he was treated as less than dirt.
Sullen and repressed, he was like a blade of grass buried deep underground, seemingly destined never to break through the soil.
Everyone thought so, and everyone wanted to trample him underfoot.
Even his own parents.
He thought his life would always be this way, until he met him.
His academy head, a senior scholar of the Hanlin Academy, was gentle and dignified, mild-tempered, generous, and accepting. He gave Huaidong a kindness he had never known.
Huaidong was like a moth drawn to a flame, tasting the fire even as it consumed him.
