[Formatting changes starting in Chapter 24]
A dual-rebirth historical romance / a master-and-disciple coming-of-age story / a sharp-tongued but softhearted young lady × a decisive, sickly man
On her eighteenth birthday, Wen Zhaole received a cup of poisoned wine from her birth father, the Chief Minister.
When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the spring banquet of her sixteenth year, where she encountered an old acquaintance.
He was still as gentle and refined as jade. His sickly appearance couldn’t conceal his noble bearing. Too bad he was now a retainer.
After the banquet, she demanded, “Why did you leave without a word that year?”
Her old acquaintance answered with a faint smile, “I was looking for someone. The journey was dangerous, so I didn’t take you with me.”
“Did you find them?”
“No. They died.”
Wen Zhaole’s attitude softened at once, though she still kept her distance. She simply couldn’t bring herself to be pleasant to a master who had left without a word, so...
It started raining on the day they investigated a case. She tilted her oil-paper umbrella toward him and said coldly, “I’m worried your frail health will slow down the investigation.”
Her master interrogated a spy in the dungeon while she waited outside, just to hand him a warming flask. “I found it by the roadside. It still looks usable, so you can have it.”
They tracked down evidence at an abandoned temple. When her master offered to accompany her out of the manor, she snapped, “You’re so sickly the wind could knock you over. Can you stop showing your face in public?”
-
As soon as Pei Jiuchuan arrived in the capital, he heard the terrible news that his disciple had died of illness.
Overwhelmed with guilt, he made a wrong move for the first time and lost the whole game.
When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to six months earlier. He once more laid out his plans and became a retainer to the Chief Minister.
In this life, he decided to stay by her side.
“A Le, go ahead and do whatever you want. I’ll take care of the aftermath.”
“You used to just stand by and watch, didn’t you?”
Pei Jiuchuan laughed without a word. His disciple didn’t seem to need his protection. What was he supposed to do?
That night, when assassins attacked the cloth shop, he finally got his chance.
As soon as his disciple finished her last words, he knocked her unconscious, then ignored his frail body and prepared to show what he could do.
Pei Jiuchuan kicked a corpse on the ground and brought his blade down, chopping off its head.
“I heard you wanted my head and A Le’s. Well, here I am, bringing you a head.”
-
[Bonus scene]
Being known as a sickly man wasn’t always a good thing.
Once, when they were in danger in a dark alley, Wen Zhaole unknowingly took a blade meant for him.
Afterward, Pei Jiuchuan bought her a book titled The Official History to make amends, but it led to an awkward misunderstanding.
“I don’t have those feelings for you,” Wen Zhaole hurried to explain.
“Mm. Let’s have breakfast first,” Pei Jiuchuan said, pretending to be calm.
The story starts with a forbidden master-disciple romance. It’s quite a shock.
Wen Zhaole covered her face with cold hands. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw Pei Jiuchuan’s face.
Beneath his sleeve, Pei Jiuchuan clenched his hand and turned away, no longer looking at Wen Zhaole.
Later, Wen Zhaole secretly wrote down her thoughts: A master-disciple romance is immoral. I’m not interested.
Half a month later, she went to destroy the note, only to find someone had altered her words. It now read: A master-disciple romance is actually wonderful. I’m interested.
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Content notes: 1. The heroine is Wen Zhaole (yue), and there is a seven-year age gap between the leads.
2. The hero is genuinely sickly, not pretending.
3. Both leads have only ever been with each other. One-on-one happy ending. Their feelings develop from master and disciple to becoming each other’s beloved.
Theme: Amid the political turmoil, they play a game of life and death together.
The author's writing is pretty good, come on 🌈