❤️A heroine who loves and hates with all her heart x an indifferent, unfeeling hero 🐴
Gu Qingying doesn’t know what makes her special, or how she won the favor of the coldhearted Crown Prince, He Xiushi. He demanded that she become his secret mistress, refusing to give her even the slightest claim to his name.
He even used the Gu family to force her to submit and obediently become his mistress.
When their affair came to light, the Gu family disowned Gu Qingying, and she became a lay Buddhist nun living on a mountain.
She had once imagined they might have a lively, adorable child together... but every night, she lay awake in anguish.
Life on the mountain was bitter and cold. Day after day, she endured it, while women kept He company at his estate and he admired beauties by lamplight.
While gathering firewood in the mountains, Gu Qingying unexpectedly saves the legitimate second son of the Duke of Zhongyong’s family, who then becomes impossible to shake off.
At a temple fair, Gu Qingying and He Xiushi meet eyes.
Each of them now has someone new by their side.
Gu Qingying acts as if she hasn’t seen him, but He Xiushi’s gaze lands on her and won’t let go.
He only realizes that he hasn’t let her go after her heart has already gone empty.
After that, He Xiushi repeatedly visits Gu Qingying on the mountain, and she becomes his mistress again. He forces her into it through his schemes.
When the Duke of Zhongyong’s family asks for her hand in marriage, the Gu family brings Gu Qingying back for the sake of their standing. Late at night, He Xiushi pleads humbly, “Gu Qingying, don’t marry him.”
Gu Qingying jokes, “All right, Your Highness. If you climb up the mountain from the foot, bowing every three steps, I’ll consider not marrying him.”
Knowing that it’s impossible for a Crown Prince of his standing to do that, she is astonished when, after her wedding date is set, the once lofty Crown Prince really does climb the mountain, bowing every three steps. He throws away every shred of royal dignity and humbles himself, begging his beloved to look back.
Remembering everything that happened, she feels a lump in her throat. “What makes you think that if I turn back, I have to choose you?”
“Gu Qingying, do you really think he’s a good man? He doesn’t love you.
“Look back at me instead.”
On her wedding night, He Xiushi storms in with a sword and carries the bride away. He once arrogantly believed that anyone who wanted to be emperor had to be coldhearted, but now he regrets it!
His regret still can’t win back her love.
He Xiushi has always believed there’s something wrong with him, that he’s seriously ill.
The burden of becoming emperor weighs on him, bringing him close to a mental breakdown. Every time he falls ill, the wounds on his wrists grow worse.
It’s only when he’s with Gu Qingying that he feels like a person again.
He cares about her, but stubbornly insists it’s just a fling, breaking her heart.
Later, he kneels before her and begs her to look back, but all he gets is a single sentence from her.
On the day he steals her away from the wedding, he kneels outside his mother’s chambers all night, drenched by the rain.
He Xiushi: “I will marry only Gu Qingying in this life.”
The day he finally gets his wish and makes Gu Qingying Crown Princess, he kneels before his father and begs him to grant the marriage in front of all the civil and military officials.
As his father flogs him, he clutches the imperial decree and smiles with satisfaction. Gu Qingying, you belong to me after all.
Reader’s Guide:
1. Over-the-top melodrama. The hero is a patriarchal scumbag on a ten-out-of-ten quest to win his wife back. A self-indulgent kink piece. The hero will not be replaced.
2. The heroine suffers a little (yes, really just a little). The early chapters are bittersweet; later, the hero suffers as he tries to win her back.
3. No personal attacks. The leads have different perspectives on what happened. Both are sexually inexperienced, with a happy ending and a one-on-one romance.
Theme: Love can overcome any obstacle.
