A Guide to Acting Sweet and Obedient for a Proud, Wicked Beauty

✧ Uke-focused, older seme / 8-year age gap / niche pairing ✧ Sanctimonious schemer x spoiled, possessive noblewoman [Blurb] Yun Shiying is the only daughter of the Prime Minister. Her birth mother died young, and her widowed father has doted on her for over a decade, raising her to be spoiled and ill-tempered. Then the Emperor decrees a marriage, giving her a new stepmother only a few years her senior. Xie Yutang. They say she was born into a distinguished family, is the most talented woman in the capital, and is cool, dignified, and impeccably proper. On her first day in the household, instead of trying to win the Prime Minister's favor, she insists on examining Yun Shiying's past schoolwork. On the second day, she brings her home from a flower-viewing banquet and gives her stacks of classical histories, books, land deeds, and account ledgers to study. On the third day, Yun Shiying's once-prized essays come back covered in red ink, marked as utterly worthless. Yun Shiying has never suffered such indignity. Her eyes nearly fill with tears as she hikes up her skirt and storms into the main courtyard to confront her. The beaded curtain is half-raised. The woman in the seat of honor is breathtakingly beautiful, with an air of noble refinement. She lowers her teacup with unhurried grace and looks at Yun Shiying. “...” Yun Shiying is struck speechless. Xie Yutang smiles faintly, picks up the jade-handled ruyi scepter beside her, and lifts her stepdaughter's chin. Her voice is cool as she asks: “Do you admit you deserve punishment for barging into your stepmother's courtyard?” - The head maid thinks that ever since the new madam came into the household, their young mistress seems to have gone mad. The first few times, she'd clearly been struck on the palm. Her eyes were red and wet, her cheeks flushed pink. It must have hurt terribly, yet she didn't utter a word. Later, word got around that the new madam had used corporal punishment. When the young mistress returned, she could barely walk, her damp black hair clinging to her porcelain-pale face. She looked so pitiful. She wouldn't let the maids change her medicine either, and spent the night changing her underpants several times and laboriously applying ointment herself. The maid fumes and wants to go to the front courtyard to speak up for her mistress. But Yun Shiying stops her, ears red, and says softly, “Yuniang... M-Mother is only doing what's best for me.” - Xie Yutang made a name for herself at a young age and cares deeply for the world. Uninterested in romance, she accepts a favor and marries into the Prime Minister's household, charged with disciplining its unruly only daughter. She teaches Yun Shiying self-restraint, propriety, and how to tell right from wrong. Yet she cannot help indulging Yun Shiying's closeness, tempting her to cross the line. Fortunately, Yun Shiying knows nothing about love. Even after being “punished” by Xie Yutang and changing into a damp dress, she can still lie across Xie Yutang's lap, completely unaware, and ask in a sweet voice: “Yuniang, when will you arrange a marriage for me?” Xie Yutang suddenly comes to her senses. Just then, a new Emperor ascends the throne and their agreement is dissolved. She divorces the Prime Minister and asks to leave the capital to oversee the new policies in Jiangnan. When she returns to the capital, before she can even reach the city gates, Xie Yutang's carriage is surrounded on all sides. Yun Shiying, her face cold, finally appears before her again. [Content Warnings] 1. Uke-focused, older seme, 8-year age gap, 1v1, they are each other's one and only. 2. The seme enters a sham marriage. They are not blood-related, and neither has romantic feelings for the other before the divorce. 3. There's not much political scheming or household drama. It's mainly about the two of them and their play. The uke's father is a background character. Theme: Pursue everything you love