A beautiful, pampered beauty who wants nothing but to lie flat / a gentle, calculating gentleman who's slow to understand his feelings
Yu Wen's father is only a low-ranking seventh-grade official, but she can throw her weight around Shan Yang City thanks to her maternal grandfather, a marquis.
One day, she is framed and schemed against, suffering both physical and emotional trauma. She is hurt and frightened, but before she can even speak up, her narrow-minded, spineless father locks her in the ancestral hall to curry favor with his superior.
Her stepmother is cruel and hypocritical, and her grandmother is greedy and mean.
Yu Wen is locked away, isolated and without help.
Liang Ke comes from a merchant family and is a son born to a concubine, not his father's principal wife.
When a noble from the capital visits and hosts a banquet, Liang Ke attends as an accomplished scholar, there to provide a foil.
Unexpectedly, he stumbles upon someone trying to murder another person!
Liang Ke intervenes and saves the intended victim, a young woman. And so he falls into the familiar plot of repaying a life-saving favor by offering herself in marriage!
The court is a treacherous place.
A secret case remains unresolved, powerful enemies launch attacks, and the Marquis's household is in decline.
As the marquis's granddaughter's husband, Liang Ke enters the game of political intrigue for the woman he loves.
The secret case concerns the fate of the realm. Liang Ke is entrusted with a mission in a moment of crisis, only to find himself imprisoned.
At the same time, Yu Wen discovers the true cause of her mother's death.
Together, the couple unravel the mysteries, avenge her mother, fight their enemies, bring down the powerful clans, and promote new laws, rising to positions of influence.
[Reader's Guide]
1. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first and only.
2. This isn't a wish-fulfillment story. It has a light ensemble cast, and the first half has lots of everyday moments. The protagonists need room to grow.
3. The setting is fictional, though some forms of address and official titles are based on the Song dynasty.
4. The heroine isn't pampered or lazy; she's very ambitious. From the start, her upbringing has affected her, and she has some psychological issues.
5. The hero was born into his current life. In his previous life, he was a sickly, pitiful child from a wealthy family, with parents, an older sister, and a younger brother who loved him dearly. As a result, he feels somewhat out of step with the era and often thinks he's dreaming. Only after meeting the heroine does he develop a genuine sense of belonging.
6. Emotion-driven, with feelings taking precedence over plot.
Content notes:
The heroine has an arranged betrothal made when she was a baby, but the two never met, had no contact, and had no feelings for each other. It was called off after she fell into the water.
The heroine's cousin is the second male lead, but he has no feelings for her beyond familial affection. The cousins are close, so at first he looks down on the hero because of his identity. He later changes his mind and helps move the political intrigue forward.
Theme: Healing through growth
