"If the only reason someone has to live disappears, what will she do?"
1.
When Xu Yao was five, her maternal grandmother brought her to the Ye family.
Her grandmother told her, "You must avenge your mother!"
For ten years, she studied day and night: music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and the art of reading people's minds.
Her grandmother raised her into a perfect pawn for revenge.
Ten years later, her father, the prime minister, came in person to take her back to his household.
In the ancestral hall, her grandmother clasped her hand. "If anyone dares mistreat you, the Ye family's troops will make them answer for it."
Xu Yao bowed before her late mother's memorial tablet, then smiled at her father's livid face.
Only later did the people of Dingjing learn that
what the Ye family had sent back was no obedient granddaughter,
but a blade steeped in poison for ten years.
2.
But when her revenge was complete, Xu Yao lost the only reason she had to go on living.
She had spent ten years as a pawn, and no one had ever taught her how to live.
So in the end, she tried to destroy herself.
When Shu Yan found her, Xu Yao was sitting alone behind a willow tree by the Yaoxiao River, her calm eyes reflecting the river's unfathomable depths.
"I don't know how to keep living anymore."
"Xu Yao, this time, would you like to live for yourself?"
She looked up. Her hollow eyes were lifeless, as placid as a pool of dead water.
Live for herself?
Xu Yao was silent for a long time before finally giving up. "No. I don't think I've ever known how to live."
Shu Yan crouched down, his gentle eyes meeting her gaze.
She had been ready to die, but someone would not let her.
"Then I'll teach you."
3.
In truth, he had remembered her for a long time.
By the pond in the imperial garden, when she was seven, she crouched to feed the fish, then turned to him. "Did you sneak out, too?"
After every parting, Xu Yao would tug on his sleeve and ask, "Brother, will you forget me?"
Shu Yan always said, "No."
But on the day they reunited ten years later, all he heard from the woman before him was a polite, distant remark: "Thank you for saving me, sir."
She didn't remember him.
The day after the Gao family fell, Xu Yao disappeared.
They searched all over Dingjing, and in the end, Shu Yan found her sitting alone with her knees drawn up in the place only the two of them knew.
The willow branches drooped, gently brushing the water as ripples spread and then closed again.
"Then I'll teach you."
At last, she looked at him.
Shu Yan wasn't sure if she remembered him, but it didn't matter.
This time, he wouldn't leave her alone again.
*Childhood sweetheart who reappears out of nowhere | Reunion after a long separation | A slow, steady romance
*Duty to family and country | A touch of ensemble cast | An unconventional tale of domestic scheming and revenge
*An innocent-looking but sharp-minded noblewoman with an unexpectedly adorable side x A proud, lovestruck royal prince
Reader notes:
1. Single-couple romance, one-on-one. Only the male lead is guaranteed to be sexually inexperienced.
2. Set in a fictional world with original elements. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy.
3. A slow-burn story, with lots of early plot setup. A touch of ensemble cast and political intrigue.
4. One of the heroine's childhood nicknames is Xiaoxiao (pronounced xiao, third tone, meaning pure and bright).
5. Tools have no weaknesses, but people do. The heroine is a fully realized person, both strong and vulnerable, not perfect or invulnerable.
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Theme: Save yourself in the depths of hardship, and rediscover your sense of self and purpose through the healing power of love.
