Gentle and obedient bunny x cold and indifferent wolf
Sang Yinzhao was born into a merchant family. When she was three, she caught a chill and was left with night blindness.
Later, her family fell into ruin, and she ended up in Lotus Lane.
She thought she would drift through life and meet an unremarkable end, until she met Rong Qianyu at fifteen.
In the vast city of Shengjing, she had never seen a man like him.
A young hero, he appeared out of nowhere and saved a crumbling dynasty from disaster.
Yinzhao never thought she could have anything to do with someone like him. After all, the difference between them was like heaven and earth.
Seeing the blind girl trembling, Rong Qianyu took pity on her and bought her freedom.
He said the name "Yinzhao" didn't suit her, so he renamed her "Qingxi," with the pet name "Jiaojiao."
*
He treated her very well.
He arranged treatment for her eyes, showed her the world, spent money on her without hesitation, and often came to see her no matter how busy he was with official duties.
People in the capital whispered that the decisive Regent had fallen for a young woman, and even Qingxi believed it herself.
Until she accompanied him to the Princess Royal's birthday banquet. Amid the laughter and teasing, she finally learned the truth:
A woman who is formally betrothed becomes a wife; one who elopes becomes a concubine. And she was neither wife nor concubine.
*
Clinging to one last shred of hope, Qingxi went to see Rong Qianyu.
His eyes were dark, his expression calm, as if he were looking at a madwoman.
Watching his indifference, her heart slowly turned cold. "What am I to you, my lord...?"
"Now that you know, why ask?"
Qingxi was forced to stay at his manor as his concubine. For a woman of her background, it was already an excellent fate.
But Qingxi didn't want it.
That day, in the pouring rain, she knelt outside his study all night, begging him to take back his order and let her leave.
The door stayed shut. Before Qingxi fainted from her fever, she dimly heard him say:
"Even a plea for sympathy depends on who's making it. Know your place."
*
Rong Qianyu once saved a young girl.
He settled her in a private residence in the capital and gave her good food and drink, yet she foolishly asked what she meant to him.
A woman so lacking in sense was of no use to him. But when she grew disheartened and wanted to leave, he forcefully kept her as his concubine.
Later, when the realm was at peace and Rong Qianyu became emperor, Qingxi inexplicably came to mind as a candidate for empress.
She had been with him for so many years. It was time she had a good life.
Who would have thought that when he went to find her that night, she was gone!
*
Later, the gloomy and obsessive emperor took hallucinogens in excessive doses for months on end, just to see that woman who "couldn't get a clue."
Two years later, while traveling incognito, he heard the sound of a familiar zither:
Perhaps an old friend has come.
[Reading Guide and Content Warnings]
1. One-on-one romance, both leads are sexually inexperienced, twelve-year age gap. The male lead has an arranged marriage decree, but the match falls through. No harem.
2. The male lead is cold and unfeeling in the early part of the story, and places self-interest above emotions.
3. Not a typical forced-romance story. The focus is on a tragic, tangled love: they hate each other but can't bring themselves to hate completely, and love each other but can't make it work. A dysfunctional relationship.
4. The blurb uses a deceptive narrative. The early story is hard on the female lead, and the later story is hard on the male lead. They won't simply reconcile because he gets hurt and apologizes.
5. The story is bittersweet. Whether it gets a happy ending depends on whether the plot can be resolved naturally.
6. Reading and writing are just for fun. The author isn't well-educated, and the work isn't highbrow literature.
(Blurb dated April 21, 2026)
Theme: Love means speaking up.
