[Poison-tongued scheming beauty x arrogant, gloomy hypocrite]
“I’d rather you hate me. At least, with your nature, as long as I’m alive, you’ll stay by my side for the rest of your life.”
*
A melodramatic revenge story about a pipa player.
When Gu Yingfeng was fifteen, she fell from the life of a noble family’s sheltered daughter into the mire of the imperial music bureau.
Everyone said her father had brought it on himself.
Back then, the whole faction was implicated, and Pei Zhuoqian’s parents died suddenly in Lingnan. He returned to the capital alone, consumed by a desire for revenge. Gu’s father coveted Pei Zhuoqian’s abilities and tried to bury the hatchet with a marriage pact. Pei Zhuoqian played along, then personally sent his future father-in-law into exile thousands of miles away, driving his betrothed to swallow gold in despair.
She hated her father for failing to see what kind of man he was. Even more, she hated that ungrateful snake who hid a blade behind his smile.
His ruthless methods made him the emperor’s favorite hardline official. With a princess betrothed to him and the emperor’s favor at its height, he rose to the pinnacle of power.
She, meanwhile, spent three years mastering the pipa until its music could pierce the soul. All so she could secure a place Pei Zhuoqian couldn’t avoid.
But by the time she did, she realized… Pei Zhuoqian had long since seen her as a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
[Reader’s notes]
1. Both leads are each other’s only romantic partners. Bad ending. (A relationship built on coercion, with more hate than love.)
2. The male lead is no upright hero. He is also gloomy and insecure.
3. The setting blends different eras, mainly the Tang and Song dynasties.
Theme: Green sleeves lean in the breeze, winding around willow catkins; crimson lips, warmed by wine, bloom like ripe cherries.
