It's So Hard to Guess What the Prince Is Thinking

Xu Shanyou is the youngest son of the prefect, and everyone calls him "Little Lucky Star." He has been spoiled rotten since childhood, surrounded by love and raised in luxury, with servants at his beck and call and every wish granted.

Pampered and accompanied by a crowd of followers, he grew up to the age of thirteen. His biggest worry was how to skip lessons and head out of town to play polo with his brothers!

Then a sudden imperial decree arrived

He was granted admission to the Imperial College as a beneficiary student, ordered to study in the capital, assigned to the South Wing, and appointed as a study companion to His Highness Prince Gong.

A study companion?

Shanyou was baffled, but Prefect Xu's expression changed at once.

An honor? This was clearly a death sentence.

The Xu family: We don't want the honor, can we just have our boy You instead?

Prince Gong, Zheng Xiangcheng, is the emperor's youngest brother and the late emperor's posthumous legitimate son. The more exalted his position, the more awkward it is.

Rumor has it that he was born frail and rarely leaves his residence.

Rumor has it that he is ill-tempered, withdrawn, and gloomy, and hard to approach.

Rumor has it that he brings misfortune to his father, mother, and elders, and that he was born under the lonely star of ill fate.

As soon as he moved out of the palace, even the Grand Tutor who taught him was struck down by his bad luck!

The very picture of ill omen, and absolutely terrifying!

Everyone avoids him. The princes and princesses at the Imperial Academy went to great lengths to send him to the Imperial College, where he was assigned to the South Wing.

The students of the Imperial College: Do our lives not matter too?!

The children of powerful families in the South Wing were even more distraught. They could only comfort one another: At least we're not the most unfortunate ones. Someone else has it worse

Being the study companion of such a difficult prince?!

It looks like the Xu family's Little Lucky Star has finally run out of luck!!!

Shanyou: What is all this talk of life and death? A lie repeated by three becomes the truth.

He only believes what he sees with his own eyes

His Highness is quiet and keeps his feelings to himself, but he's also...

quite gentle and easygoing.

The Xu family, the South Wing boys, and the servants at Prince Gong's residence: ?

Shanyou's eyes curved into a smile: His Highness is so nice. He's practically a mentor and a good friend.

Everyone: What did you do?

Shanyou tilted his head in confusion: Nothing... I just went to school.

Studying, making friends, taking exams, having fun, laughing and joking with the boys of the South Wing, and occasionally doing a couple of slightly outrageous things...

At first, Zheng Xiangcheng thought the study companion assigned to him would be a spoiled young master who would grit his teeth, flatter him, and do everything he could to curry favor.

So, on his first day in the South Wing, he was icy and silent:

Who would want to go to school with him?!

All smooth talk and false smiles, shallow to the core.

Ten days after entering the South Wing, he looked down on everyone and lifted his noble chin:

Going to school with Xu Shanyou isn't entirely out of the question.

...Being friends isn't entirely out of the question either.

A little over a month after entering the South Wing, he kept a straight face as he carefully put away the boy's handwriting:

Going to school with Xu Shanyou is exactly the kind of school he wants to attend!

Where has his study companion run off to now?

A few months later:

Can't it just be him and Shanyou going to school together? Why are there so many people always crowding around Shanyou?

What? Friends? A gentleman's friendship is as clear as water. Get it?

Later:

How can he make sure he's Shanyou's very best friend in the whole world, with all their classmates and even his own brothers coming after him?

What? You can't have a friend all to yourself?! What nonsense!

Later still, a faint smile touched his lips as his deep gaze fell on the radiant boy, the center of everyone's attention:

A study companion should, of course, stay by his side day and night, never leaving him for a moment.

Shanyou never thought there was anything unusual about his school days, until one day, His Highness, who was always so expressionless, suddenly seemed like a different person!

Zheng Xiangcheng's eyes were bloodshot, his gaze roiling with frenzied love. His voice was hoarse and trembling as he whispered in Shanyou's ear...

Shanyou froze and widened his eyes: His Highness's feelings are so hard to figure out!

[Popular, doted-on sunshine bottom x quiet, sensitive, proud, awkward, possessive top]

[Click to watch the proud prince put on a daily act, pretending to be one thing while feeling another, and gradually fall so deeply he can't pull himself out]

[Click to enjoy a wonderfully warm family atmosphere, with a houseful of brothers who dote on their little brother and a family that supports and nurtures him]

[Click for a lighthearted, funny school-life story, devoted friends, a cast of boys growing up together, and young men in their finest clothes, full of vigor and youthful ambition!]

[Click for daily life among the ancient nobility, with descriptions of aristocratic life, seasonal customs, holiday traditions, and a balance of everyday pleasures and aesthetic delights!]

Reader advisories:

1. Clear-eyed surrender to love, intense push and pull, and a touch of getting back together after a breakup. They are apart for two years, but there's a reason. No angst or cheating, so feel free to read.

2. The bottom isn't a doormat. He's kind but has a backbone; he's a little detached at first and grows as the story goes on. The top isn't domineering. They start as friends and become lovers, gradually leaving their youthful confusion behind as they walk side by side.

3. The dynasty is fictional, with customs inspired by the Ming and Qing. The language has a touch of Dream of the Red Chamber, and the court politics serve the story.

Theme: All the perseverance and waiting will eventually bring mutual devotion and a journey toward one another. May every reader's private loneliness find a safe home in someone's wholehearted affection.