The Unruly Favorite

Mild-mannered, optimistic, resilient, tough little pig of a maid × a mad, affection-starved prince who flies into helpless rages

A-Tang was the daughter of a merchant family in the capital. After her family fell into decline, her stepmother sold her to Prince Jin's residence, where she became a maid assigned to menial work.

Because she was pretty and delicate, the other maids and servants ostracized her. She was never well-fed or warmly dressed, and was given the hardest work.

A-Tang was mild-mannered and optimistic by nature. She silently endured her hardships, holding on to just one hope: that the childhood sweetheart she'd grown up with would pass the imperial examinations and bring enough silver to buy her freedom.

But that very night, someone ambushed the prince at the palace and drugged him with an aphrodisiac. When he returned to the residence, he happened to see her passing by and dragged her to a rockery, taking her innocence by force.

Afterward, the prince tossed her a bag of silver ingots in disgust and told her to go as far away as she could and stop showing herself in front of him.

A-Tang was an honest girl. With red-rimmed eyes, she found her fiance and confessed that she was no longer chaste.

Her fiance gently patted the back of her hand and said he didn't care about her chastity, that he loved her for who she was. But as she lowered her head to wipe her tears, his eyes greedily swept over the big bag of silver ingots.

Joy rose in A-Tang's heart, as if she'd swallowed a soothing pill. She returned to the residence and kept her head down, living carefully and quietly, waiting for her contract to expire in six months. Then she'd leave the residence and elope with the man she loved.

*

Prince Jin, Zhao Jingrui, was the younger brother of the current emperor. Born brave and blessed with extraordinary strength, he led troops north at fourteen to drive out the Turks, guarded the frontier for five years, and won great distinction. No one in the army could match his prestige.

Yet a month after his elder brother ascended the throne, a forged imperial decree tricked him into returning. He was stripped of his military power and condemned to spend the rest of his life in the capital, forbidden from crossing its borders. He was forced to become an idle prince, lost in wine and women.

Seven years passed in the blink of an eye. The gilded cage had not only confined his body and mind, but worn down his will. The man who had once yearned most for freedom gradually became volatile and deranged.

He spent lavishly at brothels and caroused all night, behaving as outrageously as he pleased. He dragged death-row inmates from the cells, lined them up, and used them as archery targets for the guards at his residence.

But day after day of debauchery and wild excess still couldn't soothe the restlessness and resentment in his heart. Then one day, he caught a little sparrow, drab and slow-moving, yet remarkably tenacious.

He bullied and teased her, pinning her down again and again. He watched her clumsily get back up, dust herself off, and keep muddling through life, as if nothing could knock her down.

Her optimism and refusal to give in enraged him. He became even more overbearing, taking everything from her, and in the end, literally breaking her wings.

All he wanted was for her to stay by his side.

Until she resolutely, without a moment's hesitation, hurled herself against a pillar, blood flying everywhere.

"Now, surely you'll let me go..."

Theme: Develop a healthy attitude toward love, and learn to speak like a human being