Male and Female

"I hear the most handsome Zhao Jiu in all the land was abducted by the Lord of Yanyun City while being sent into exile."

"The Lord of Yanyun City? The most formidable man in the world?"

Whenever Li Chunbai heard such talk in the teahouse, she could only sigh helplessly to herself: She was nothing like the most formidable man!

What she wanted was to be the most tender-hearted woman under heaven!

Female disguised as male, with a male second lead taking the lead.

Upcoming historical romance: After the Powerful Gave Me Away, I Shut My Heart

The orphan Wei Wan would fight a dog for a single bite of food.

In a violent downpour, starving and soaked, a young man held out a meal beneath his umbrella and asked if she would come home with him.

Love at first sight, her heart carried away, Wei Wan nodded without hesitation.

He treated her wonderfully, giving her warm robes and teaching her landscape painting and the zhongruan. Later, he rose to become a powerful chancellor. Though buried in work, he kept up the habit he'd formed in his youth, listening to her play a tune every day.

On Wei Wan's eighteenth birthday, with the crabapple blossoms opening at midnight, he visited her bedroom.

The flickering flame mirrored her heart. She was so deeply in love that she not only let him stay, but worked up the courage to climb onto him.

The chancellor sat smiling faintly, letting her take the lead. He occasionally guided and corrected her, but never allowed things to go all the way.

Wei Wan thought he was sparing her, since they weren't married and hadn't shared a bed. But he said, "Wanwan, do something for me. When it's done, I'll bring you back." Then he added, "I'll marry you."

The next day, in the main hall of the Chancellor's residence, Wei Wan arrived in a gauzy green veil, carrying her zhongruan.

The chancellor smiled. "Wanwan, hurry and pay your respects to His Highness, Prince of Chu."

As she rose, the wind lifted her veil. The Prince of Chu saw Wei Wan's face and froze.

On the way back to the Prince of Chu's residence, Wei Wan learned from an attendant that His Highness, who used a wheelchair, not only loved the zhongruan and landscape paintings, but also had an unattainable beloved who looked exactly like her.

Hooves and wheels rolled over the stone road, crushing her heart as well. The pain became so extreme that she could no longer feel it. She locked away her love and closed her heart.

*

Bian Ruyu, the Prince of Chu, had been schemed against as a child and lost the use of both legs. From then on, he kept a low profile and concealed his true nature.

He actually hated the zhongruan and landscape paintings, but pretended to be utterly obsessed with them.

He had never fallen for any woman, yet he fabricated a beloved from whole cloth.

Ha! The chancellor had copied the same trick, offering up a "substitute" he'd found?

Bian Ruyu looked utterly shocked, tears glistening in his eyes. He seemed overcome with emotion, but in truth, he was watching a clown put on a show and laughing until he cried.

The show had to go on, so he took Wanwan back with him.

The scumbag gets his comeuppance, the man in the wheelchair wins her heart, and it's a sweet, clean romance.

Theme: Love and peace