Spoiled young lady x gloomy, insecure man. Sweet romance, guaranteed sweetness.
Yin Pan had a powerful chancellor for a father and a beautiful princess for a mother. Raised with boundless love and pampered at every turn, she naturally grew into a headstrong, spoiled young lady.
She had everything go her way and lorded it over others until she was fifteen. Just when everyone thought her good fortune would last a lifetime, rumors spread through Chang'an: Yin Pan wasn't the chancellor and princess's biological daughter at all. She was an abandoned baby, switched at a ruined temple during a rainstorm years ago.
The real young master had already arrived in Chang'an to reclaim his family name.
Yin Pan's old enemies all waited to see her humiliated. But her chancellor father and princess mother seemed bewitched, still doting on their precious girl and calling her their darling.
To keep her from worrying, they even changed the birth details of their biological son in the family register, making him the younger child.
Chancellor Father / Princess Mother: "Our own flesh and blood could never be as dear as the child we raised. Our Panpan is the best in the world."
*
People had always told Yin Pan to be careful around Yin Qi.
Now that he'd reclaimed his family name, he was the only boy of the Yin generation and would inherit the family fortune sooner or later. Besides, her parents had never treated their children equally and had always favored her. Over time, he might secretly grow resentful.
Yin Pan was always careful.
When Mother asked him to wait on her, Yin Pan insisted on coming along, refusing to let him be the only one to show filial devotion.
When her imperial uncle, the emperor, gave her a reward, she made sure to share it with him rather than let him have the benefit all to himself.
As time went on, Yin Pan decided Yin Qi was just a pretty boy, a big, silly goose. He called her "Big Sister" so affectionately, he hadn't even noticed what she was really like. If so, he surely wasn't capable of competing with her for their parents' affection, and he still had to rely on her to keep those spoiled young masters from picking on him.
Yin Pan was pleased.
Yin Qi smiled too.
Until the day she angrily broke off her engagement with her cousin. Then she heard from someone else that the whole thing had been her dear little brother's doing.
"What do you think you're doing?" Yin Pan kicked at him, but he caught her ankle in a firm grip.
Her delicate foot rested in Yin Qi's cool palm. He lifted his dark, deep-set eyes and smiled as before. "Big Sister, he isn't good enough for you."
Yin Pan sneered. "And you are?"
Yin Qi lowered his head and pressed his lips to the warm arch of her foot. "I'm not good enough either, but I'll try my best."
Theme: Cherish the person by your side.
