Drunken Clear Wine

The author's writing is sometimes good and sometimes bad. When it's bad, it's hard to put into words, so proceed with caution!!! But!! The logic is sound, and this definitely won't be an utterly nonsensical story that hits all the wrong notes!!

Practical-minded heir apparent seme (Li Yijiu) x wine-loving, flirtatious chancellor uke (Su Shanqing);

Why give the leads such tongue-twisting names?! Because there's a saying: "The drunkard's mind lies not in the wine, but in the mountains and rivers." (Love at first sight.) So which one is the "mountains and rivers," and which is the "wine"? And who fell first? Come ponder (guess) it!

1. The young gentlemen looked at the Chancellor's perfectly composed expression, puzzled. They wondered if His Excellency was angry, but then a clear, crisp voice rang out: "Did this older brother take liberties with me?"

2. That night, Li Yijiu tossed and turned. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the Chancellor's face: serene in sleep, laughing without restraint, and cold and proud as frost. He got up and practiced his sword in the courtyard for a while.

In the Lan Dynasty, men and women could only be betrothed at twenty. They could be engaged before twenty, but not marry. For the first eighteen years of his life, the heir apparent of Prince Li was sent by his father to Ruolan Temple to study martial arts under Abbot Puhui. He completed his training at eighteen. When he came of age, his parents planned to arrange a marriage for Li Yijiu, but their son contracted smallpox and nearly died. They did not want to hold another family's daughter back. When he was twenty-one, barbarians invaded, and the heir apparent went to war with his father, putting his marriage plans on hold. When he was twenty-two, Abbot Huipu passed away. His teacher's kindness weighed as heavily as a mountain, so the matter of marriage was postponed again.

Now, Li Yijiu was twenty-three. That year, he met Su Shanqing. He was the Chancellor of the court, a favorite of the powerful in the eyes of the people, the biggest merchant in the Lan Dynasty, and a frail, sickly, wine-loving man, clever, proud, and beautiful.