Mistaken for the Powerful Minister's Dark Moonlight

[Pampered Rich Heiress x Restraint and Endurance from a Poor Boy]

In the capital, everyone knows that Pei, the young marquis of the Ningyuan Marquis Estate, passed the palace examination and became the top scholar after only three years. He rose to the highest ranks of government, wielding power across the court.

Few people know that when he was young, this young marquis had to live under someone else's roof, where a willful young lady ordered him around at every turn.

"The tea is too hot. Blow on it until it cools." "The carriage is too high. Pick me up!" "Kneel down! Wash my feet." ...

He endured it all in silence, counting the days until he was strong enough to take his revenge.

Then one day, the arrogant young lady suddenly changed. With her coquettish charm and delicate beauty, she drew him, a man who had always been pure of heart and free of desire, into a willing infatuation.

**

Liu Yun had grown up pampered as the apple of her family's eye, accustomed to throwing her weight around and having her every whim indulged.

Everything changed when she came of age. Her father brought a brooding young man home.

That was the first time she saw him. She hated the way Pei Jizhi stared at her, his gaze brazenly defiant. So she lashed his back with her long whip and forced him to submit.

A wager forced her to deliberately get close to him and seduce him.

She pretended to be drunk, hooked an arm around Pei Jizhi's neck, and draped herself over him, hoping to see humiliation on his face.

Pei Jizhi did indeed turn his head slightly, putting some distance between them.

Liu Yun turned his face back and made him look straight at her.

"Pei Jizhi, why are you avoiding me?"

The man's gaze was deep. His arm tightened around her waist. "Do you know what you're doing?"

She couldn't read his expression. Her nerve failed her, and she backed away, trying to flee.

But he pulled her into his arms and pressed close, taking the offensive with ruthless intensity.

She played her moves one by one, watching coldly as he sank willingly into the mire, step by step into the web of love she'd spun for him.

In the end, he couldn't escape his fate as a servant beneath her skirts. Once Liu Yun had won, she only laughed coldly.

"It was all just an act. Why take it seriously?"

In the end, she won the wager and walked away without a backward glance.

**

Three years after their breakup, Pei Jizhi still couldn't forget those dazzling, bewitching eyes.

Then one day, he saw her on the street, leaning intimately against a strange man's shoulder.

The man who had once been cool and self-possessed lost control. He wrapped an arm around her waist and breathed in her scent almost obsessively. "Yunniang, you were the one who came after me first. You can't just say you're leaving and abandon me."

Only then did Liu Yun understand that his past meekness, his willingness to be pushed around, had all been a facade. He'd known it was her game and willingly played along, bowing down and submitting to her. That was the truth.

[Like Jiang Taigong fishing, waiting for the willing to take the bait.]

Reader's Guide:

1. Set in an imaginary dynasty, with original worldbuilding. Please don't offer writing advice.

2. The heroine is something of a villain early on. Neither lead is normal, so don't read if that bothers you.

3. Includes pottery and business management.

Theme: Repay kindness and cherish everything.