The Beloved Little Sister

[A cross-dressing, gentle-on-the-outside-but-dark-inside older sister figure x a cute, affectionate, sweet younger sister] Lu Peipei is the sixth concubine-born daughter of the Duke of Dingguo's family, raised outside the household. After returning to the noble family, she is constantly bullied and lives in fear and uncertainty. Then, one winter, she meets her eldest sister, Lu Peichao. Lu Peichao is the legitimate daughter of the first madam. She lives year-round at the family's villa in Jiangnan and rarely comes home. Everyone respects and fears her, but Lu Peipei is not afraid of her. In Lu Peipei's eyes, her eldest sister is tall and beautiful, learned and utterly refined. She is the only one who treats Peipei well. Peipei and her eldest sister eat at the same table and sleep in the same bed. Peipei holds her sister's hand when they go out, and her sister combs her hair, does her makeup, and always brings her all kinds of delicious food and fun things. Then one day, her eldest sister suddenly disappears. When she returns, she has become her eldest brother... The eldest daughter of the Duke of Dingguo's family, no, His Highness Prince Jing Pei Chengzhao, the imperial heir who has just returned in glory from the battlefield, stands before Peipei and gently holds out his arms to her. "You always used to ask me for a hug when we met. What, you don't want one now?" * The eunuchs seize power and murder the emperor. With the eunuchs' support, the elder prince becomes a puppet emperor, while Pei Chengzhao is secretly sent to the Duke of Dingguo's residence under the protection of his personal guards. For more than ten years, he endures hardship and bides his time. To stay alive and avenge himself, Pei Chengzhao disguises himself as a girl and lives as the eldest daughter of the Lu family, building up strength to strike back under their protection. That year, he returns to the Lu family from the south and comes across a bullied little girl, the newly found concubine-born daughter of the Duke of Dingguo's family and his nominal younger half-sister. Seeing how badly she is bullied, looking as pitiful as a sick little kitten, he casually lends her a hand. He never expected the little kitten to cling to him from then on. In the years that followed, Pei Chengzhao was always thinking that he had to kill his enemies and come back alive to see her. He worried that if he didn't return, what would become of that little kitten? Theme: Having someone you want to protect makes your heart grow stronger.