(Will start when it reaches 300 follows or when the draft reaches 200,000 words.)
(The eldest legitimate princess, holding all the cards and too disdainful to scheme VS a ruthless, unhinged prince of an enemy state who schemes even against himself)
All Yuan Zhaoning wants in this life is to be an idle princess, but her father gives her every exception.
When the army goes to war, he has her perform the ceremony of receiving the imperial axe. When he leaves the palace on an inspection tour, he keeps her tethered to his imperial carriage.
There is no shortage of gossip among the people, but no one dares speak for fear of the emperor's might.
Then, when she is ten, an imperial edict comes down: legitimate sons of officials of the seventh rank or higher, aged seven to thirteen, may not marry until she has chosen a consort.
The whole court is in uproar, and so are the people. From then on, spoiled, debauched, a harbinger of ruin... every accusation is laid at her feet.
Yuan Zhaoning wants to ask too: Father, what exactly are you after?
But before she can figure it out, she encounters a man on her southern inspection tour, filthy from head to toe and barely recognizable as human.
A guard steps forward, but she raises a hand to stop him. There's no need to take in a man from the roadside. Give him a little money and send him on his way.
Who knows if he's here to kill her?
But fate gives her no option to leave him behind.
Even though she never reaches out to him, that man still becomes entangled with her for half her life.
Yin Chenji is the most hidden-away prince of Yan, forced to conceal his pride as he flees, all for the sake of staying alive.
Only by surviving can he take revenge.
That night, covered in blood, he stumbles into the dirtiest alley in Zhao, right as the eldest princess, infamous for her cruelty and lust, passes through on her southern inspection tour.
She doesn't even leave her carriage. She glances at him from afar. "It's hard to tell if that's a man or a ghost. Give him some money and send him away."
He thinks this is the greatest humiliation of his life, never realizing that fate has only just begun to act.
Time and again, she pulls him back from the brink, only to push him into an even deeper abyss with her own hands.
He avoids her, hates her, and can't stand her, but every time he turns around, she's there.
Until the imperial decree of marriage arrives, and he becomes her consort.
On their wedding night, red candles blaze.
She presses a dagger to his heart and smiles. "Who are you?"
He presses closer instead of retreating, letting the blade sink into his flesh. In a low voice, he says, "Isn't it a little late for the princess to ask that now?"
A born winner and a desperate gambler tear each other apart, only to fall for one another.
She lives as if the world owes her everything. He lives as if the world deserves to be buried with him.
Theme: Fate is in our own hands
