After Mistaking the Deposed Crown Prince for My Childhood Friend

Shu Yun was born into a family of merchants. The year she came of age, she entered the palace in her cousin's place.

Her birth family was weak, and her rank had yet to be decided. Inside the palace, she was as helpless as a fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of others. Just when she had lost all hope, she heard that Shen Che, the childhood friend she had once saved, had risen to the highest position in court and was staying overnight in the palace after drinking.

Clinging to a faint hope, Shu Yun took a keepsake from their childhood and secretly went to find Shen Che. But he was no longer the close friend she remembered. Instead, his temperament had changed completely: he was mercurial, constantly pressuring and threatening her.

To improve her situation in the palace, Shu Yun had no choice but to soothe and keep him company day after day, even though she knew he detested her. She also knew that their stations were worlds apart, and if their secret ever came to light, they would both be doomed.

So once her circumstances improved, she left him a gift of thanks and never sought him out again, shutting herself away in the palace to live a quiet life of her own.

Until the night of a palace banquet, when someone set her up and she nearly lost her innocence. As despair overwhelmed her, Shen Che rescued her. Hidden in his arms, she heard the palace servants rush in at the commotion and call out to him in alarm: "Your Highness, the Crown Prince!"

Shu Yun was dumbfounded.

It turned out she had mistaken him for someone else all along. The childhood friend she knew as "Shen Che" was none other than Huo Wuqi, the disgraced crown prince confined to Tingquan Palace, infamous for his ruthless schemes, violent temper, and bloodlust!

What she knew even less was that half a month after she said goodbye to "Shen Che," the gates of the long-abandoned Tingquan Palace swung open. The disgraced crown prince who had sworn never to step outside again returned to court!

Later, through countless nights when Huo Wuqi relentlessly pursued her and entangled her in an intimate, suffocating embrace, Shu Yun repeatedly regretted stepping through his door on that desperate snowy night. There was nowhere to run, no way back. Like a butterfly blundering into a spider's web, she sank deeper with every step and could never turn back.

[Male Lead's Perspective]

At seventeen, Huo Wuqi was confined to Tingquan Palace. At the time, he was a disgraced crown prince, notorious for conspiring to build up a faction of followers.

But no one remembered that before he turned seventeen, he had accomplished great deeds. The civil and military officials all praised his extraordinary talent and utmost filial piety, saying he was truly the one to unite the realm.

In his youth, he was an uncut piece of jade, carved away piece by piece to fit the mold of a crown prince. Later, like a puppet on strings, every step he took left him cut to ribbons by invisible threads.

He gave up on himself and sank into the mire, until one day a little cat carrying the scent of flowers suddenly wandered into his personal hell.

She was delicate and naive, frail and helpless, yet for her, he was willing to break the vow he had once made.

As long as she beckoned, he would gladly kneel at her feet and bow to her as his sovereign.

[Dark, unhinged, unstable disgraced crown prince x optimistic, kind, soft and adorable girl]

The leads have a five-year age gap. Both are virgins. One-on-one romance, happy ending.

The entire plot serves the romance. Set in an imaginary world with many creative liberties, so please don't overanalyze. Thank you, thank you!

Theme: You only live once, so live for yourself.