A Yuan has two secrets:
Her first secret is that she likes Xie Zhao.
Her second is that she writes romantic stories about Xie Zhao.
The Xie family is an aristocratic clan whose members have served as high-ranking officials for generations. Xie Zhao is widely regarded as the next head of the family. Incomparably handsome, he became an editor at the Hanlin Academy at just twenty.
But her status is lowly. She is merely the daughter of a sixth-rank official, so every night she writes stories to ease the ache of missing him.
The stories are explicit, vulgar, and utterly shameless!
Yet she trembles with excitement. Perhaps lewdness and depravity are her true nature.
By day, however, she turns back into the quiet, wooden A Yuan who hides at the edge of the room, so silent that she may as well not be there.
No one knows her two secrets. She has no desire to reveal them.
Then one day, her manuscript suddenly disappears.
She searches everywhere but cannot find it. Terrified that it will bring disaster down upon her, she falls ill from fear and cannot get out of bed.
When she wakes from her fever, the person she sees as she opens her eyes is none other than Xie Zhao!
Xie Zhao stands by the window holding a book. Blossoms sway on the branches behind him in the breeze. As if sensing her gaze, he looks up at her. “Little sister, you’re finally awake.”
It is exactly like the first chapter of her story.
This is a disaster. The plot of her story has come true!
She has actually become Xie Zhao’s long-lost younger sister.
*
The youngest daughter of the Xie family’s third branch was lost as a child and eventually found in the home of a sixth-rank official. The family matriarch dotes on her granddaughter, so she orders Xie Zhao to choose a husband for her.
Unable to refuse, A Yuan suppresses her longing and tries to get along with the candidates.
They are all fine men, handsome, from good families, and of good character, and none of them looks down on her for having once come from a humble family.
But A Yuan cannot help comparing them with Xie Zhao.
When Xie Zhao asks about it, she can no longer hold back and pleads, “Brother, can I just stay unmarried?”
Xie Zhao falls silent.
So A Yuan casually points to the candidate whose build most resembles Xie Zhao’s.
She comforts herself with the thought that being siblings with Xie Zhao for the rest of her life is already far better than things used to be.
She abandons her fantasies for good and settles down to embroider her wedding dress.
But on her wedding night, amid red candles and silk decorations, it is Xie Zhao who lifts her veil.
Xie Zhao wears a wedding robe, its brilliant red reflected across his fair, handsome face.
He leans down slightly. The fingers that usually hold a book or sword lift her chin, and his dark eyes stare straight at her.
“Who did you think was coming in, little sister?”
“Why are you hiding? Isn’t this what you wanted?”
He holds a book out before A Yuan. The familiar cover, the familiar handwriting.
It is the story she lost.
*
Xie Zhao has a secret.
Ever since he was young, he has dreamed of other people’s love affairs. He can never make out the faces of the man and woman, but they are always entangled in passionate embraces, whatever the occasion.
After witnessing so much absurdity, he has come to hate romance.
Until one day, the woman in his dream finally speaks:
“Su Zhi, A Yuan loves only you.”
Su Zhi is the courtesy name he has just received.
Reading Guide:
1. The male and female leads are not blood relatives. The heroine has no connection to the Xie family; it is all a misunderstanding.
2. The plot is melodramatic; everything serves the romance.
3. None of the candidates is wronged.
Theme: A secret crush comes true.
