[The aloof, untouchable crown prince as the pursuer x the Western Regions' stunning, powerful beauty as the pursued] [Fake-death romance]
# On falling at first sight for someone's looks, wanting a little fun, and ending up getting in way over your head #
# On how an aloof, clear-headed, self-restrained beauty was forced into becoming a possessive, patriarchal tyrant #
Xuan Yi first met Yan Lin while sneaking into the imperial palace to steal something.
At the end of the bamboo grove, deep in a covered corridor, stood a tall, handsome young man in a black robe, as graceful as jade.
Staring at him, Xuan Yi curiously nudged the palace attendant beside him. "Hey, hey, who's standing over there? He's gorgeous."
The attendant looked up and nearly fainted in terror. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? That's His Highness the Crown Prince!"
So that was Yan Lin. As the attendant dragged him away, Xuan Yi sneaked a glance back and met a pair of smiling eyes, hazy with wine.
Xuan Yi's second meeting with Yan Lin was in the crown prince's bedchamber in the Eastern Palace.
He brought a jug of fine wine, climbed onto the wall, and raised it toward Yan Lin, who was bent over his desk, writing furiously. "Your Highness, the winter night is long. Would you care to try the strongest wine in the Western Regions, Hanhai Fire?"
Yan Lin's brows drew together, then relaxed. "All right."
Fueled by wine, Xuan Yi kissed him. Yan Lin called him frivolous, but didn't push him away.
The third time Xuan Yi met Yan Lin, he used a life-and-death love curse on him and went to great lengths to stay by his side.
He accompanied Yan Lin on trips to search for people, control floods, and aid disaster victims, traveling all across the land. He had thought he could stick to his original intention of "just having a little fun," but he had underestimated how uncontrollable people's hearts could become when they spent day and night together.
The new emperor ascended the throne, and the empress's investiture ceremony was imminent. Unable to bear watching Yan Lin marry and have children, Xuan Yi used the exquisite dagger he had given Yan Lin to fake his death and make his escape. Then he happily returned to the martial world he knew so well.
He didn't know that after he left, the usually composed and self-possessed new emperor lost control in front of everyone for the first time.
A year later, when word reached the capital that the new emperor was critically ill, Xuan Yi was drinking himself into oblivion at a little tavern in the desert.
He was dying? Well, the Great Yan imperial family did have all sorts of strange illnesses.
Xuan Yi downed every last drop of strong liquor.
Then, the next day, a swift horse raced toward the capital.
When Xuan Yi crouched and sneaked into the new emperor's bedchamber, he turned around and fell into an embrace scented with a cold, sharp fragrance.
The man who was supposedly critically ill and on the verge of death was now hale and hearty, locking a pair of solid gold shackles around each of Xuan Yi's wrists and ankles.
The man behind him spoke icily. "Have you had enough fun outside the palace, my empress?"
Xuan Yi gave an awkward laugh. "If I say I haven't, will you take these things off?"
Yan Lin: "No."
Yan Lin, Crown Prince of Great Yan, was accomplished in both civil and martial arts. Taught by the Three Dukes and the great schools, and well versed in governing for the people, he was Great Yan's much-anticipated future ruler. Every word and deed of his followed propriety, without the slightest impropriety.
He did only two things in his life that defied convention:
The first was a kiss, given in a confused, wine-fueled moment.
The second was to make a foreigner from the Western Regions his empress, despite everyone's objections.
Both had to do with Xuan Yi.
Both were the uncontrollable, unrequited private feelings that kept growing despite all his efforts to suppress them.
"Tales from Great Yan"
A year after the new emperor took the throne, the long-empty rear palace finally welcomed its sole master.
They say she was a peerlessly beautiful woman from the Western Regions.
Archived 2025.9.7
[Reading tips]
1. One-on-one, both leads' first relationship, happy ending
2. Mostly sweet, with a little melodrama
3. They are both head over heels for each other
4. The love curse is not a plot hole; the story will explain it
Theme: When there is a flower worth picking, pick it while you can
