The Song of Water Chestnuts Is Heard Everywhere

[Opening for the Mid-Autumn Festival. I'll try to update daily unless something unexpected comes up. Hope you enjoy it.] Updated September 17, 2026

After an accident, Ji Chunxiao was reborn into the period when she was still in the imperial palace. At that moment, she learned that she was merely a stand-in for the commandery princess Su Cancan, brought in to take her place and keep the emperor, empress, and royal family from grieving after their beloved had gone missing.

The young general doted on her, and the crown prince treated her like a younger sister, but only because she looked so much like Su Cancan and could comfort them in their grief.

She had to match the beloved princess in every way, in how she walked, sat, and moved. Even so, gossip still reached her ears: she wasn't as cute or well-behaved as the princess, nor as clever or brave...

But none of that mattered to her.

She did everything she could to resemble the princess, hoping to secure a place for herself in the cold, empty palace, even if only as a stand-in.

Until one day, the beloved and pampered commandery princess Su Cancan returned.

She only had to stand there. Without doing anything, she effortlessly took away everything Ji Chunxiao had worked so hard to maintain.

With the beloved back, the royal family who had once cared for her rejected her in an instant, and she became a laughingstock throughout the palace.

After enduring a string of schemes and deadly attacks, Chunxiao lost heart. Faced with those ugly, sneering faces, she resolutely discarded her stand-in label and chose to live for herself.

Xiao Wanyu, a prince of Yongzhou, spent his early years confined in the Cold Palace, where he developed a capricious, vengeful, black-lotus personality.

He had a secret hobby: standing high above and watching the weak panic and run in terror.

That had been his habit as a prince, and it remained so after he joined the Kunlun sect.

Even back in the palace, he couldn't stand Ji Chunxiao. He thought she was a clingy dodder vine who depended on others. Even after they reached Kunlun territory, his prejudice didn't fade.

She was weak and helpless, with nothing on her mind but revenge and face-slapping, unlike a heaven-blessed genius like him, with his extraordinary talent for cultivation.

To while away the long, dull hours, he sat on a high platform and watched Chunxiao fall and get back up, over and over, never giving in.

Seeing that unyielding light in her eyes, Xiao Wanyu's heart inexplicably skipped a few beats. Soft-hearted, he helped her a few times.

At the time, stories about proud people lowering their heads and changing their minds were popular. Xiao Wanyu scoffed at them. Little did he know that years later, he would search heaven and earth for such stories, reading them night and day to learn from them.

[Reader's Guide]

1. Not a female-power fantasy or a pure wish-fulfillment story, but a sweet romance between two stubborn people. Neither lead is morally perfect, so please keep that in mind.

2. Some character designs draw on the Classic of Mountains and Seas. It's a mash-up of mythology and folklore with plenty of original liberties, so just enjoy it for fun.

3. Plot-driven, with the romance developing later. Please keep that in mind.

4. 1v1, both leads are sexually inexperienced.

Theme: No matter how the outside world judges or changes, have the courage to walk your own path.