The Brooding, Manipulative Minister Is the Talented Woman's Dog

[Brooding, discarded-puppy male lead x slow-to-realize-her-feelings literary female lead]

[Feel free to let it build up, and please add it to your collection]

Wu Qingyi was a noble young lady of the Wu family, the most prominent aristocratic clan in the land. She had composed poetry and prose from an early age and was renowned as a talented woman.

No one knew that when she was young, she brought home an abandoned child she found outside. She raised Mo Jun, a wild, vicious stray like a rabid dog, in the residence, letting him play pitch-pot and recite poetry alongside the children of noble families.

Back then, the young prodigy was troubled every day for some unknown reason, her face clouded with sadness. At the spring banquet, she gazed gloomily at the beautiful lake. In early autumn, beneath the clear skies and crisp air, she wept in the breeze. Watching the most beloved child in the family grow thinner by the day, the Wu family was frantic with worry. No one knew what could be troubling a young lady who had grown up surrounded by fine clothes and silk.

To cheer up their sister, Wu Qingyi’s brothers searched the streets, mountains, and lakes for all sorts of novelties to delight her. But the young prodigy was unimpressed and waved them away with her sleeve, returning to her melancholy.

Then the abandoned child stepped out of the crowd and approached her. No one knew what the boy did, but he managed to make the young prodigy stop crying and smile, sweeping away the gloom in her heart. From then on, the two were inseparable.

Later, no one in the world knew Mo Jun’s origins. He became the adopted son of Lord Li.

Later still, the times changed. A new faction arose to claim a share of power from the aristocratic clans, and the emperor personally appointed one of its members as Secretariat Director, ushering in a struggle between the old and new factions. But that director was no benevolent man. The malice and contempt in his eyes became blades aimed at the aristocrats. He was like a sinister, lurking ghost, dark and strange, ruthless enough to make one’s heart tremble.

Before long, everyone knew the Secretariat Director’s name. Mo Jun’s wolfish ambition and ingratitude became common gossip.

Over the next few years, Mo Jun climbed higher and higher with razor-sharp political instincts and ruthless methods. He went from the new faction’s representative to its spokesman, and finally its leader, overturning the aristocratic clans’ century-long monopoly on power. Because of his cunning methods and honeyed words hiding a dagger, historians of every generation denounced him as a treacherous minister.

Everyone said he was heartless and unfeeling. Only a few knew how utterly lost he was when he was first appointed Secretariat Director. He even sat for a long time at a roadside pavilion, trying to escape the grasp of fate, all because the Wu family’s talented young lady had left him with the words “We’re through.”

[Short extra scene]

It was said that the Lord of Fate in Heaven had accidentally muddled the books of the mortal world, causing strange events to crop up again and again over the centuries. In a dynasty that valued propriety and marriages between social equals, an absurd marriage had actually... actually taken place. The woman was noble and brilliantly talented, while the man... was beneath even the humblest commoner.

And yet he seized his chance amid the chaos, rose to prominence, and reached the highest levels of power.

The history books described him as politically astute and sinister, and said that the things he did to rise to power were beneath the dignity of a scholar-official. He seemed just like a male ghost climbing out of the underworld. Later generations felt a chill throughout their bodies just from reading about him, as though they had narrowly escaped a calamity.

Even more absurdly, historical records had apparently confirmed that this ruthless minister and the famous, brilliant woman were a couple!

Serious scholars did not jump to conclusions, and most people in society didn’t believe it either. But the pair had such undeniable chemistry that contemporary romance stories set thousands of years ago began appearing in great numbers.

Until

Archaeologists unearthed a small book he had written. Its pages were filled with tenderness and unwavering devotion. Just reading it stirred a damp, faintly musty feeling in people’s hearts.

Only then did people realize that a love story really had taken place here.

One-on-one pairing, both sexually inexperienced, happy ending

Aesthetic of the Wei-Jin era, entirely fictional setting

Theme: Women’s strength, striving for a world held in common and an age of peace