Tempting My Childhood Friend

[Airheaded Beauty] x [Brooding Heir]

One-on-one, happy ending, alternate universe

The Xie family's daughter was born beautiful, but a great fire in her childhood left her mentally impaired, foolish and slow-witted. She spent many years recuperating in the mountains, and only returned to the Xie family mansion with her mother in the year after her coming-of-age ceremony.

She was at the age to marry, but the young lady still had the innocence of a child, even as she began to form ideas of her own.

She said there was a young man outside the bamboo grove north of the city. He wore a bamboo bird pendant at his waist and had promised to marry her when they were children.

When she later went with her father to the bamboo grove, Xie Qingmei really did meet the young man from her childhood.

He was warm and friendly, with a face like polished jade and a tall, graceful figure. He was a thousand times more handsome than before.

She cautiously followed behind him. After spotting the token at his waist, she asked timidly, "Brother Ayu, when will you marry me?"

At the time, Shen Zhuyu had just arrived at the Court of State Agriculture. Looking at the sweet, innocent young lady before him, he sneered inwardly.

He'd met plenty of women trying to climb the social ladder. With a fool like her, he could make her cry in any number of ways until she left of her own accord.

So, with nothing better to do, Shen Zhuyu took this inexplicable "childhood sweetheart" under his wing and started concocting one scheme after another.

The young lady was naive and slow-witted. Every time she wiped away her tears, all it took was a few words of comfort, and she'd happily trot along after him again.

That is, until the day Xie Qingmei drank tea he had brewed himself and wore lip rouge he had picked out for her, then told him she was going to be betrothed to someone else.

The young lady smiled like a flower, radiant and dazzling.

Xie Qingmei didn't notice the dark look in Shen Zhuyu's eyes that day. She only knew that he accidentally crushed the cup in his hand and bled a great deal.

*

On the day of the betrothal, the gifts delivered to the Xie residence filled the entire courtyard.

But the man presenting them was Shen Zhuyu, Heir to the Prince of Yu.

Xie Qingmei pulled Shen Zhuyu into a corner.

"No. I'm supposed to marry the Third Young Master of the Xiao family, not you."

"If Xiao San can marry you, why can't I?"

"Because I don't like you," Xie Qingmei said, scrunching up her little face as she hesitantly explained. "You said that what I felt for you was the affection between siblings, not romantic love, and that I should remember that. I really did remember."

"And... you're clearly not my Brother Yu. You lied to me. I don't like you very much anymore!"

"..."

Everyone said Shen Zhuyu hid a knife behind his smile and was full of schemes. This was the first time in his life he'd shot himself in the foot.

But it didn't matter. Until the Xie family accepted the betrothal gifts, Xiao Boyu's procession would keep circling Yong'an City, until the Xie family accepted Shen Zhuyu's gifts first.

Theme: Cunning cannot surpass sincerity. Only sincerity can win people's hearts.