Synopsis
[Wolf and Rabbit | Childhood Friends (?) | Frank and Flirtatious Girl x Tsundere, Scheming Man]
The auspicious day was drawing near. The fifth daughter of the Yue family, raised in Jiangzhou, was to return to the capital for her wedding.
Both families were busy preparing for the wedding, and Yue Ying's bridal gown was nearly finished when terrible news arrived at the estate.
Her fiance, Xu Junlan, had committed the unforgivable crime of defying his superior and angered the young emperor. He had been thrown into prison, and the entire household was about to be investigated.
Yue Ying's heart sank. She had heard rumors in Jiangzhou that the current young emperor was a ruthless tyrant.
Xu Junlan had been his close friend for years, yet the emperor had still been cruel enough to harm him. What wouldn't he do?
Her family and friends urged her to cut ties with Xu Junlan as soon as possible to protect herself. But she couldn't bear to give up so easily. After asking around, she learned a secret.
The young emperor had been secretly in love with her for some time.
Yue Ying suddenly understood. Everything fell into place: the plot of a ruler stealing his subject's wife from a storybook was happening to her.
Realizing that Xu Junlan had been implicated because of her, she resolved to be a woman of loyalty and honor, and went alone to meet the emperor.
*
It was the third month of spring, and peach blossoms filled the branches.
The young emperor wore casual clothes, his gaze unruly. With a flip of his pale fingers, he snapped off a peach blossom branch and nearly laughed aloud. "You saw his wife and thought... Who? You? Me?"
Yue Ying's eyes brimmed with tears, barely holding them back. A faint blush spread across her pale skin.
She gathered her courage, but her voice was still timid. "If Your Majesty is willing to release my fiance, I am willing to enter the palace..."
The more the young emperor listened, the tighter his brow furrowed. He cut straight to the point. "My lady, you certainly have quite the imagination."
Yue Ying was stunned. It wasn't until she received a message from Xu Junlan in prison that she learned his imprisonment was only a ploy by him and the young emperor to mislead their enemies. She also had no idea where the supposed secret had come from. It had all been baseless gossip.
Yue Ying was so mortified she could have died.
*
The young emperor thought Yue Ying's name sounded familiar. Xu Junlan told him they had met before, when they were very young.
Back then, Xu Junlan had introduced him to little Yue Ying, saying, "This is the young emperor."
Little Yue Ying had smeared her face with her older sister's rouge, turning it bright red, and cheerfully greeted him. "Your name is Shao Di? Which Di is that?"
The young emperor had impatiently said he didn't want to play with stupid children. Yue Ying had leapt at him and bitten him.
He gave a snort. So it was her. She hadn't changed a bit all these years.
*
Many years later, one day, Yue Ying opened her door.
The young emperor braced a hand against the doorframe. His dark eyes swept over her smooth cheek as he asked, pretending to be nonchalant, "I heard you broke off your engagement. Does what you said before still stand?"
"No!"
Wasn't her engagement ruined because of him? And now he had the nerve to make a casual remark like that!
Yue Ying leapt at him to bite him again. The young emperor took the chance to wrap an arm around her waist and tapped his lips with a fingertip. "Bite here."
*
Later, Xu Junlan would often wake from dreams in the middle of the night, full of regret.
First, he regretted taking Yue Ying into the palace to play when they were children.
Second, he regretted lying to Yue Ying and telling her he had been thrown into prison.
Third, he regretted grinning at the young emperor and telling him how wonderful Yue Ying was.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized something was wrong. He had been robbed of his fiance by the emperor!
[The rabbit bites when she's mad vs. the wolf who waits by the door to be bitten]
Reader's Guide:
1. A romance between a young man and woman, with plenty of emotional intensity.
2. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first, happy ending. The male lead is completely devoted, body and soul, and will never have a harem.
3. A fictional dynasty blending elements from different eras. Please don't nitpick the history.
Theme: Face every day with optimism.
