Song Shu is sixteen and living with her maternal aunt in the capital. Disguised as a boy, she has entered the Imperial Academy as a student admitted through family privilege. With the spring examinations drawing near, she is fretting over how to fake an illness and avoid taking them. Then her uncle, a judicial officer at the Court of Judicial Review, is inexplicably thrown into prison, and all word of him vanishes.
As the only “man” in the family, Song Shu has no choice but to step forward and visit the Chancellor’s residence. She hopes to find the young man there who is on friendly terms with her, Xie Xilang, the seventeenth son of the Xie family, and ask him for news.
Instead, she runs into the exceptionally dignified Chancellor Xie, Xie Shen.
Xie Shen was raised in a Buddhist temple, then returned to secular life and entered the Grand Secretariat. Now approaching thirty, he entered the Buddhist faith after a life of bloodshed. He thought he had devoted his life to Great Zhou, wishing only for peace and prosperity, and was willing to bear infamy for all eternity.
One day, he caught sight of a young man outside his own home.
With just one glance, selfish desire took root in him, and he willingly succumbed.
“Song Shu, do you think I’m too old?”
As the adopted son of the Chancellor Xie, whose name is known throughout the land, Xie Xi has always respected and admired the man who is his father in name. That is, until he discovers his beloved in his father’s arms.
“Third Brother, if Father can have you, why can’t I?”
Just parking this idea here for now. It’ll probably be a pure historical romance.
P.S. Of course, as a magnet for admirers, there will definitely be more male suitors than these. The plan also includes a gentle, sickly eldest prince, a young genius top scholar, a taciturn young general, a romantic poet and mad bard...
It’s practically a grand muster of the khan’s troops.
Theme: Live well
