Obsessive, sick, unhinged crown prince gong × aloof, frail, stubborn, cold-hearted shou
Both leads are each other's first and only love; open ending
In the eighth year of Tai'an, Xi Huai, then a junior minister at the Court of Judicial Review, sent in a memorial that landed Crown Prince Yan Zhao in the Ministry of Justice's prison.
But Yan Zhao somehow walked out of prison alive. Afterward, in the Eastern Palace, beneath red bed curtains and on a soft couch, he forced a bond with Xi Huai. Xi Huai left their child behind and fled to Jiangnan in the dead of night.
Three years later, to protect the orphaned child of the late Princess, Xi Huai had no choice but to return to the capital. Enemies meeting again were consumed by rage. Yan Zhao gripped him by the throat. The love that had once filled the young man's eyes had turned into deep-seated hatred and madness. “Xi Huai, is your heart made of stone?”
Xi Huai was no less cutting. “Your Highness, if you're sick, go get treatment.”
Those hands had once gripped his throat, and had also held their child: the little bastard Xi Huai thought had died long ago, now lively and well, calling him “Mama.”
Yan Zhao said, “I named our child Sui. May blessings and good fortune follow him.”
For the first time, Xi Huai felt lost. The person who had once shared life and death with him, keeping him company by the lonely lamp, and the person who later killed his siblings and took him by force were one and the same.
So love and hate tangled together, and he could no longer tell which one was stronger.
“A-Huai, then let us be entangled forever. If Heaven won't grant us this union, I'll ask for it myself.”
They met when they were young, and their love was unshakable. If not for everything that happened between them, they would have been the perfect couple, the kind everyone envied.
Content warnings:
Historical A/B/O: Qianyuan (A), Zhongyong (B), Kunze (O)
The shou has an irresistible-allure trait. There will be angst, and both leads will suffer. Both are hopeless romantics.
Neither lead is sane. The gong takes the shou by force. They hate each other desperately and love each other desperately. There is a groveling arc.
Includes childbirth, possibly pregnancy loss. Extremely melodramatic, with a love-hate relationship.
The plot exists to serve the melodrama. No logical political scheming, purely for entertainment.
Theme: Love and freedom
