My Royal Uncle Is a Flamboyant Peacock

[Disguised as a man + devoted to each other + strong heroine + transmigration + faked death + fictional setting + adversaries become lovers + political intrigue + returns later and resumes wearing women’s clothes] A flamboyant, scheming little royal uncle disguised as a man vs. the refined, noble first son of an eminent clan In brief: Yu Xichan can only come back to life in her original world by completing her System’s missions. She spends her whole life working diligently and treading carefully, but just as she’s ready to bow out after accomplishing her goals, the System tells her that the man has gone mad and she needs to return to fix the mission… Wait, how did my sweet, serious little stick-in-the-mud turn into a gloomy, obsessive ghost of a man?! Everyone in the court of the Great Jing knows that Yu Xichan, the late emperor’s youngest royal uncle, is an unapologetic peacock. What they don’t know is that she is a woman disguised as a man, carrying out a mission to assist the young emperor Yu Zhaolan, break the aristocratic clans’ monopoly, and stabilize the crumbling Great Jing dynasty. She lays out a grand game of strategy, seizing control of the finances and military, reforming the civil service, and personally creating a golden age balanced among three powers. Cui Yan, eldest legitimate son of the Qinghe Cui clan, comes from a family of the highest standing and is always impeccably proper. At first, he sees her as a menace to the court and guards against her at every turn. But after one clash after another, he falls deeply for her and willingly lets go of his family’s constraints. Just as he decides to become the Princess Consort of Linchuan, the Linchuan Prince he has cherished in his heart dies the day before he can confess… The young emperor Yu Zhaolan, alone since childhood in the depths of the palace, depends only on this royal uncle, developing an unspoken, possessive obsession. When peace reigns and her mission is complete, she chooses to fake her death and slip away quietly. But the court falls into turmoil the moment she is gone. Cui Yan goes mad with power, using the whole realm as a bargaining chip as he stubbornly waits for her return. Back in the imperial capital, Yu Xichan watches as the two men consumed by obsession draw closer and closer…