Uncle's Devotion

[Earnest, resilient, sweet little darling x A flirtatious yet valiant, eight-foot-tall general]

The young lady of General Wu’s household, Shu Yan, is as graceful and delicate as water. Word is, she is about to be married.

Out of consideration for the Wu family’s merits, the court has arranged her marriage to Prince Jingwu, Xiao Tuo. Rumor has it that he is the emperor’s full brother, a true imperial noble. He is also a celebrated warrior, brooding and aloof, and very difficult to get along with.

That would be bad enough, but he had also fought off invaders at the border alongside her father for years. They served together for five years and called each other brothers.

Wait, the sixteen-year-old Miss Wu is shocked. By seniority, shouldn’t she be calling him Uncle?

*

Prince Jingwu Xiao Tuo is the third son of the founding emperor of Dasheng and the full younger brother of the current emperor. He is twenty-eight, over eight feet tall, remarkably strong, and imposing.

From a young age, he fought foreign enemies alongside General Wu, a sharp blade on the battlefield.

Then one day, his imperial brother insisted on arranging a marriage for him. That would have been bad enough, but the bride was the little girl he had watched grow up in the military camp.

He had no such tastes when it came to younger women.

Yet beneath the warm red wedding curtains, night after night wore down his resolve. Years later, with that truly tender beauty in his arms, he finally understood how badly he had been made to eat his words.

Gazing at her harmless-looking face, Xiao Tuo could not figure out when he had fallen for her.

Was it the first time he held her, and saw her stunning face beneath her mourning robes?

Or when she needed his help, came up to tug on his sleeve, and called him the greatest hero of his time in that alluring, lilting voice?

Or perhaps it was after that night of drunken passion with the woman in his dreams, when her lovely figure appeared in his mind?

Every day, he woke to her figure, her snowy neck, her beautiful eyes, and her irresistible thoughtfulness. With every passing moment, he fell deeper.

Hadn’t he said he wouldn’t marry? Hadn’t he asked his imperial brother to find him a bride? Hadn’t his old injuries made marriage inadvisable?

No. None of that was true. Years later, he bowed his head in surrender, wholeheartedly content to dote on her for the rest of their lives.

Reader’s Guide:

1. Twelve-year age gap | height and build difference | one-on-one, both leads’ first relationship, happy ending

2. The male lead is in his prime, not an old man. He is a tough, powerful warrior.

3. Set in an imaginary world. This is not a marriage-first, love-later story. The mourning customs are also fictional, so please don’t scrutinize them.

Theme: Courageously stand against everything