[Please add the next book, His Highness Insists, to your reading list]
1v1, both virgins
[Blurb]
The Azure Demon appears out of nowhere, and a single blaze of azure fire brings the Great Moon Kingdom to ruin.
The once lofty Seventh Princess becomes a vagabond, and is abandoned by her personal guard while fleeing for her life.
The first half of Xiao Qi's life can be summed up in two words: miserable and tragic.
She spends only a moment at rock bottom before her luck turns. A mysterious, wealthy, and kind-hearted young lord takes her in.
The mysterious young lord, Qiu, treats her better than anyone could ask, but Xiao Qi can't help thinking there must be something fishy about it.
After turning it over in her mind, Xiao Qi decides... Maybe he likes her?
But the mysterious young lord puts that idea to rest. "I'm this kind to everyone, so you don't need to feel burdened."
Xiao Qi lowers her eyes without a word, picturing how he treats other women.
A sword through someone's chest, a sword pinning someone to the wall, a large hand gripping someone's neck and slamming them to the ground...
So... what exactly does "this kind" mean?
-
Qiu thinks he has hidden the Azure Fire very well.
He loses himself in this lie, doting on Xiao Qi to the utmost.
Qiu tells her, "Whatever you want, I'll give it to you."
Though it is slow going, Qiu can feel Xiao Qi's heart gradually opening to him.
Finally, on the night of the fifteenth day of the eighth month, amid the thousand lanterns he has lit for her, Xiao Qi grabs his lapels, rises on her toes, and kisses him.
Qiu's eyes flicker, but at the same time, a poisoned dagger slides from her sleeve and plunges straight into his heart.
"I want you dead!"
-
Fang Xiao Qi of Yingzhou: ruthless and a woman of few words.
The disciples of Yingzhou say that their new junior sister, Fang Xiao Qi, was tricked into marriage by the notorious Azure Demon while she was away.
But she refuses to submit to the Azure Demon's lecherous tyranny. Instead, she dares to fight back, stabbing the calamity-bringing demon in the eye.
The Yingzhou disciples applaud her. Their sect needs exactly this kind of brave and resourceful person who fears no evil. She's the perfect recruit this year.
But in reality...
"Senior Brother! Xiao Qi's been kidnapped by the Azure Demon!"
"Senior Sister! Xiao Qi's been kidnapped by the Azure Demon again!"
And later on,
"It's fine. She's got legs. She'll run back on her own."
[Bonus Scene]
One dark and windy night, by the hot spring halfway up Mount Huanan, Fang Xiao Qi looks left and right, making sure nobody is around before she takes off her clothes and steps into the pool.
She has barely closed her eyes when she hears splashing beside her. Someone steps into the pool and pins her against the stone wall.
"Did you know everyone in Yingzhou says I ruined your reputation and kidnapped you to make you my wife?"
Xiao Qi: ...
"Then why don't we make the rumors come true?"
[Romance-blind, silly beauty x gentle young lord with a serious case of lovesickness]
Coming Soon: His Highness Insists
A handsome prince who is tsundere and talks himself into falling in love x a clever, spirited female traveling doctor with her mind on her career
Shen Xiangfu has always thought Xiao Chiyu is a bit of a weirdo.
When she first met him, she thought the Twelfth Prince of Nanyang was naturally suspicious, painfully tsundere, and full of himself. Besides his handsome face, he had no redeeming qualities.
After learning that his mother died young, his father was cold, his siblings fought among themselves, and his guards brawled with one another, Shen Xiangfu feels sorry for him. She laments how hard it must be for him to be all alone amid the struggle for the Nanyang throne.
Besides, they help each other out, and this Twelfth Prince is pretty decent. Shen Xiangfu decides he can count as one of her brothers.
But as time passes, Shen Xiangfu increasingly finds the prince's temper strange. Just yesterday he was laughing and chatting with her, but this morning he gives her the cold shoulder.
They face life and death together and weather hardships side by side. Shen Xiangfu figures they're all friends, after all, and she can put up with a bit of a temper.
But later, just as she is fretting over how to get out of an arranged marriage between their families, her good friend barges into her room and pins her beneath him without a word.
Shen Xiangfu is shocked and confused. "...Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Aren't we friends?"
Xiao Chiyu gives her a chilly smile and strokes her lips with his thumb.
"Who said we're friends?"
-
The guard Mufeng thinks Shen Xiangfu must have something special about her.
Before his prince met Shen Xiangfu, he was perfectly stable. But ever since this quack traveling doctor showed up, he grabs Mufeng every day and asks,
"What does the way she looked at him mean?"
"She actually called him big brother? Is he even her real brother? Why is she calling him that?"
"She lied to me! She lied to me! How dare she lie to me!"
"Does she think I'm not good enough for her?!"
Mufeng watches his prince lose his mind every day, then asks, "Your Highness, are we still competing for the throne?"
But his prince says, "Go ask her what she wants for dinner. I'll cook."
Mufeng: ...
Fine. Loving a beauty more than the throne is all right, too.
But when news arrives of the traveling doctor's arranged marriage, Mufeng's door is kicked open in the middle of the night. His prince rushes in, frantic.
"I'm going to fight for the throne! Right now! Immediately! Hurry!!!"
Theme: When will the cycle of vengeance end?
