Why Won't the Princess Look at Me?

[Noble Lady Villain x Honest Man Driven into a Rabid Dog]

*

Princess Zhaohua Xiao Hanzhen is a noble-born daughter who was lost among the common people. On the very first day she returns to the capital to reclaim her identity, a riot breaks out among the refugees.

The good news is that she is rescued the very next moment by the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The bad news is that the man who saves her, Jiang Lian, is the former lover she once seduced, humiliated, and abandoned.

A man as soft and misty as a rain-laden evening sky kneels on one knee before the dazed Xiao Hanzhen. He raises his head in salute, the bright flash of his sword reflecting the curve of his thin, upturned lips.

"Your servant Jiang Lian pays his respects to Your Highness Zhaohua," he says with a loud laugh. "Your Highness is trembling. Did I frighten you?"

Xiao Hanzhen knows she is no good person, and she knows Jiang Lian has every reason to hate her.

In the reckless days of her youth, she wanted revenge on her stepsister for bullying her, so she stole the man her stepsister loved. After spending one night together, she kicked him out of bed and cast him aside like a worn-out shoe.

In the past, no matter how harshly she spoke to him, Jiang Lian would only prop his chin on his hand and look at her with a gentle smile. Afterward, he would give her whatever she wanted, cherishing her with tenderness.

But that time, after learning the truth, the young man gave a laugh and flung the wedding goose he had brought to propose against the stone ground, smashing it to a bloody pulp.

Xiao Hanzhen nervously guesses that Jiang Lian has changed completely. Now he is vindictive and vicious as a rabid dog, and he intends to take revenge on her for the unforgivable mistake she made three years ago.

Sure enough, on the very night they reunite, she has a nightmare that foretells the future.

In the dream, six months later, she is implicated in her husband’s rebellion and thrown into a dark, stifling prison. Her gorgeous, fearsome robe embroidered with flying fish is carelessly spread beneath her bare flesh. Jiang Lian kneels before her, grinning savagely as he draws out her trembling sobs, venting all the resentment and hatred he has carried for three years.

*

Jiang Lian is the powerful and infamous Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. But when he was young, he once nervously harbored fantasies of a noble young lady.

When she took the initiative to profess her love and they spent a night together, he was so happy it felt as though bliss had fallen from the heavens. But the next morning, he learned he had merely been a tool she used to spite her elder sister.

As if struck by lightning, he stormed away and swore never to see her again.

Three years later, however, while carrying out the emperor’s command to quell a refugee uprising in the capital, he catches sight of Xiao Hanzhen’s trembling face, as delicate as fluttering petals, among the rioters.

Jiang Lian has always believed he wants to cut her into a thousand pieces and devour her. Yet, across the turbulent crowd, as he looks at her timid, tearful eyes, he shamefully feels a trace of pity.

So be it, he tells himself. She is his sovereign, and he is her subject.

If Xiao Hanzhen truly repents, perhaps they can start over.

Until she tries to escape him and actually arranges for him to be assassinated.

After a night of bloodshed, Jiang Lian pulls the dagger the assassin plunged toward his heart from his own body. Kneeling amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, he finally bursts into laughter.

So she despises and abuses him so much that she wants not only to leave him heartbroken in this life, but to make him die beyond Yin Mountain, never to touch the hem of her skirt again in any life to come.

But he refuses.

Jiang Lian returns to the land of the living. When the little princess sees him, her eyes widen in fury. "Why are you here?!"

He draws a deep breath and smiles.

"I can smell Your Highness. Wherever you are, I can track you down. Well, Your Highness, are you satisfied? Why won't you look at me? Do you think I look like a dog?"

Jiang Lian once thought that meeting her was his misfortune, that his sincere heart had been trampled without a care.

Later, he thinks that meeting him is her misfortune.

Since she has no interest in him being a good man who loves her, he might as well be thoroughly wicked. She can forget about escaping alive.

[Reader's Guide]

👉🏻 One-on-one romance, both are each other's first and only love, happy ending

👉🏻 Fictional dynasty, no historical research needed 🪷

👉🏻 The blurb uses misdirection. The assassination attempt on the male lead and the female lead's prophetic dream both have more to them than meets the eye.

👉🏻 Villains get their comeuppance from other villains / subordinate defies superior in a forced romance / melodramatic lovers reunited after a breakup / love and hate intertwined, with a resentful husband / emotionally intense

👉🏻 The transmigrate tag refers to an important supporting character. The male and female leads are both natives of this world.

[Blurb screenshot: 2025.11.28]

Theme: Love is patient forever