The princess found a bloodied man and took him home.
Others might not know who he was, but Li Zhaohua recognized those eyes. He was Yan Ruyu, the peerless young nobleman famed for his extraordinary talent.
But now this nobleman had fallen into the mire, and, to make matters worse, lost his memory.
Li Zhaohua looked at him and quickly made up her mind.
From that day on, Princess Li Zhaohua had a new personal guard by her side.
She taught him to wield a sword, to obey her commands, and to be loyal to her alone.
He took blades for her, placed flowers in her hair, and stood guard outside her palace with a lantern through the quiet of the night, watching over her peaceful sleep.
The palace servants all said the princess treated this guard differently from everyone else.
Only Li Zhaohua knew that she had been deceiving him from the very beginning.
She lied about his name and his past, and told him that she was the only person in the world he could rely on.
She thought she could keep up the lie for the rest of their lives.
Until, trapped in a dire predicament, she herself became the one to reveal everything.
That night, the wind howled and the rain fell hard. Li Zhaohua stood quietly by the window, watching Yan Ruyu walk away.
She did not try to stop him, and he did not look back.
*
When they met again, everything had changed. The once unrivaled princess had become a prisoner overnight.
And the guard she had taken in now looked down on her with haughty disdain.
Yan Ruyu bent down and gently gripped her chin.
His warm breath brushed her ear.
"When Your Highness saved me back then, did you ever imagine this day would come?"
-- Blurb for The Villainess Gets a Redemption Script --
Chi Qianlan eked out a living on the streets, notorious as a wicked woman with a terrible reputation.
The next time she was caught stealing food, the crowd refused to disperse. She thought her life would come to an unceremonious end right there.
Lu Qingci, the legendary swordsman said to have chilled fourteen provinces with a single slash, came riding on the wind. With just a few casual words, he rescued her from utter despair and brought her back to his sect.
The doubts and criticism began the day she entered the sect and never stopped.
Chi Qianlan gazed at the noble and unblemished Lu Qingci, unable to understand why he insisted on taking someone with no talent for cultivation as his only disciple.
So, when they sparred, Chi Qianlan gave up and didn't fight back.
The rain came down in torrents. The crowd suddenly parted, and Lu Qingci appeared in flowing white robes, untouched by a single raindrop.
"Come on. Treat me as your opponent and strike me."
Chi Qianlan stared blankly at the face so close to hers, then shook her head.
How could she attack her benefactor?
Thunder rumbled overhead, and the rain grew heavier. Through the curtain of rain, she met his clear, bright gaze.
"I'll stay right here and wait until you're willing to strike."
After a long while, Chi Qianlan clenched her teeth, snatched up the wooden sword lying in the mud without hesitation, and swung at Lu Qingci with all her strength.
Her strike had no form and was full of openings.
Yet the moment she attacked, Lu Qingci clearly smiled.
"That's more like it. That's a disciple of mine, Lu Qingci."
*
Lu Qingci's perspective:
Lu Qingci had eyes that could glimpse the secrets of heaven.
As he watched the girl who was about to be swallowed by the lake, he could not bring himself to associate her with the word "demon."
Perhaps he had seen it wrong... Whenever he had revealed the secrets of heaven in the past, all he got in return was people avoiding him like the plague.
Lu Qingci shook his head. This time, he was determined to rewrite fate with his own hands.
*
From taking up the sword to swinging it, Chi Qianlan gave everything she had to imitate Lu Qingci's every word and action.
The girl who once could barely hold a sword transformed herself into the sharpest blade in Lu Qingci's hand.
Until one day, when the sect was surrounded, Chi Qianlan watched helplessly as Lu Qingci died in her arms. The moon that had once shone on her finally set--
When she opened her eyes again, Chi Qianlan had returned a hundred years into the past. The young Lu Qingci still reached out to save her from drowning.
Meeting Lu Qingci's calm gaze, her heart skipped a beat at having him back. He was alive, but he didn't know who she was.
Swallowing her bitterness, Chi Qianlan clasped his warm hand tightly.
Given another chance, her master would become her senior brother. This time, she would rewrite fate with her own hands--
Theme: Do the best you can within the limitations of your era
I can totally understand how she feels. When he no longer responds enthusiastically to every little thing in life as he did at first, the sense of gap will indeed make people uneasy and even wonder whether the relationship is fading. He responded less, perhaps because of burnout, but it could also be because he mistakenly believed that the relationship was solid enough that he could temporarily shift his energy to other aspects of his life. He misjudged the fragile connection between the two at this time, thinking that love had advanced to another form. He thought that he no longer needed to respond to everything to maintain the relationship, but defaulted to the fact that they were already in each other's future. He thought that love would naturally settle into a habitual existence, but he forgot that she still needed those specific and small moments to confirm that she was always seen and cared about. It's not that he doesn't love anymore, but he made a common mistake, taking "settlement" as a reason for "relaxation" and taking "silence" as proof of "tacit understanding". When two people just started, everything was new, even a cloud, a gust of wind, and a flying swallow were worth sharing. The love at that time was exploration, resonance, high-frequency interaction and response. But as the relationship deepens and life is overlaid with the weight of reality, the way of expressing love will slowly change. It no longer seems as enthusiastic as before, sometimes it becomes silent and becomes a kind of silent trust, which is the peace of mind of knowing that you are always there, and it is natural to include the other person in your life plan. But he ignored that no matter how deep the love is, it needs to be awakened and nourished in small interactions. He misread the stage of the relationship and underestimated her need for continuity of emotional connection. His problem is not that he doesn't love, but that he doesn't realize that true love requires both the ability to look into the distance together and the patience to live up to every swallow that flies by the window. Now he has realized it, but it's too late.
""Xiao'er, there is no eternity in the world..." This is a big mistake for the author~ I solemnly need to change this word
Recover memory bit by bit
The introduction of new characters can make the story fuller and more grounded. Compared with the love and hatred of the emperor's family, the feelings between ordinary people are more moving. There is just one thing. The reason why Guangling San is well-known to the world is inseparable from Ji Kang. Ji Kang was falsely accused and executed. Before his execution, he played Guangling San and said, "Guangling San is extinct today." The story behind this piece involves regicide and the challenge to imperial power. It is full of political metaphors and can echo the final ending and core of the novel. But The performer here is the son of the King of Jibei. As a member of the royal family, it seems inappropriate for him to play Guangling San in public. The previous person has never appeared before. I don't know what his character is, but it may be a foreshadowing of the author. He will become a person who dares to fight against his own class in the future. This is not expected. Let's wait and see.
He didn't know that she was the daughter of the enemy who killed her father. He only knew that she was the one who saved his life and took good care of him, so he was willing to sacrifice his life for her...