A Happy Match

Blurb:

An imperial edict arranges a marriage between the Fifth Prince, Qi Fei, and Su Ying, the daughter of a physician.

The Fifth Prince, Qi Fei, has little faith in the match.

First, he has devoted himself to spiritual cultivation since childhood and hopes to attain great freedom one day. He has no desire to enter worldly life.

Second, he is firm in his ambitions and has no intention of changing them. Even if he marries by imperial decree, he will continue cultivating, so he believes this marriage can hardly be a happy match.

If Su Ying weren’t the daughter of his mother’s old friend, and his mother hadn’t asked him to look after her, he would rather defy the decree than marry her.

Before the wedding, he finds Su Ying and explains his situation.

“If you don’t want this, I’ll speak to my father.”

Su Ying looks up at this reserved, composed prince, as ethereal and untouched by worldly concerns as an immortal. Feeling guilty and a little uneasy, she says, “I’m willing to marry you.”

Su Ying, for her part, thinks the marriage is a good match.

First, her father, a senior physician, saved someone he should not have, and the Su family fell into ruin overnight. She is alone and badly needs protection.

Second, her husband is determined to cultivate, which means he won’t interfere with her practicing medicine. She believes there was something suspicious about what happened to her father and wants to uncover the truth behind the Su family’s downfall.

Hearing her answer, Qi Fei can only accept it.

After they marry, Qi Fei happens to discover that his wife had a childhood sweetheart before the wedding, and he catches the two of them meeting in secret.

His wife runs over in a panic and nervously grabs his sleeve, trying to explain.

He gives her a mild smile. “It’s all right.”

After all, he will have to leave one day. It’s good if his wife has someone to look after her.

But later, he regrets it.

His wife wholeheartedly believes he is a generous, gentle, and composed gentleman. She chatters away without a trace of jealousy about how wonderful her childhood sweetheart is, and even praises her husband as a good, broad-minded man right in front of him.

Qi Fei feels a dull pain in his lungs, as if his ribs might snap from anger. Not wanting to ruin his wife’s good opinion of him, he forces a smile and chats amiably with her childhood sweetheart.

One night, his wife disappears, leaving only a letter for him.

In it, she thanks him for looking after her, then says she is leaving with her childhood sweetheart to seek a life together.

Qi Fei smiles, gritting his teeth.

Without hesitation, he summons the household guards.

“Catch her. Kill him.”

Su Ying wants to find out who set her father up to save the person he should not have, bringing ruin upon the Su family. So she passes the exam to become a physician’s apprentice at the Imperial Medical Bureau.

As she pieces together the clues, she realizes the matter is connected to the Crown Prince’s illness.

At the Imperial Medical Bureau, she keeps hoping to take the Crown Prince’s pulse. She even thinks about it in her dreams, murmuring, “Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”

Lying beside her, Qi Fei hears her dream and sits bolt upright in anger. But he doesn’t dare wake her to demand an explanation, and can only suffer in silence.

He is battling that damned childhood sweetheart in the court, and now she’s thinking about the Crown Prince too?

He should have made up his mind to cultivate from the start.

Still, he can’t accept it. He pulls his dreaming wife into his arms, wraps her up in the bed curtains, and refuses to let her sleep.

A fictional setting.

There are misunderstandings, but no spoilers. Su Ying × Qi Fei, one-on-one throughout.

Both are virgins. Five-year age gap.

Theme: A healer’s compassion.