The Five-Year-Old Princess with the Mind of a Child: The Chaste Emperor Lulls Her to Sleep Every Night

[Palace and household intrigue] + [sweet historical romance] + [devoted, monogamous love]

Sweet consort with the mind of a five-year-old × abstinent emperor

Childhood sweethearts × healing and redemption × mutual devotion

Xiao Jiuling, the Grand Tutor’s daughter, accidentally eats poison, leaving her with the mind of a five-year-old forever. On his deathbed, the Grand Tutor entrusts her to his proudest student, the young emperor Di Xuanyi. He brings her into the palace and makes her a consort.

The imperial consorts all want to see how this silly consort will be devoured without a trace. When the Noble Consort mocks her to her face, she tilts her head and offers her a pastry. “A Ling wants to share this pastry with you. It’s really yummy.”

When the Empress humiliates her in public, she crumples her little face and throws herself into Di Xuanyi’s arms, sobbing. “Brother Xuanyi, she was mean to me.”

Everyone expects the emperor to grow tired of her. Instead, Di Xuanyi turns and wipes Xiao Jiuling’s tears. “Don’t cry, A Ling. Brother Xuanyi is here.”

She wants a kite, and the next day Di Xuanyi makes one for her. She wants a wooden sword and a swing, and within a few days, she has both.

His Zichen Palace is filled with wooden horses of every size, all carved by his own hands, just because she wanted one.

Day after day, they live like this. She wants the stars, and he builds a ladder to reach them. Gradually, he realizes his feelings for her have long since become more than a brother’s love for his sister.

But their days together come to an abrupt end the day she is attacked. The shock awakens something in Xiao Jiuling, and for the first time, the eyes that had always been innocent and uncomprehending hold the clarity of an adult.

“Xiao Jiuling.”

He calls her by her full name, his voice calm. “All these years, did you ever feel anything for me... Could it be...”