Tangdi

The Li family's boy thought his father didn't care for him and his mother didn't love him. He wound up pitiful and alone in Xizhou, a little beggar nobody wanted. Then a scholar took him in.

The scholar gruffly but tenderly cooked for him, bought him clothes, and sent him to school, working away like a diligent old mother.

Then an unexpected upheaval changed everything. Ten years later, the scholar had become a powerful minister with the power of life and death, while the Li family's boy returned to court in glory as a young general. The two old acquaintances met again as superior and subordinate in the workplace of the imperial court.

Serving in the same court, the black-robed lord put on airs and avoided him whenever possible, embodying the phrase "says one thing, means another" to perfection.

At last, one day, the young general, full of curiosity, asked the powerful minister:

"My lord, do you know about the unspoken rules of the imperial court workplace?"

Stubborn, wolfish seme x sharp-tongued, scheming uke

Reader's guide:

1. One-on-one, happy ending, younger top.

2. Volumes one and three take place in the past; volumes two and four take place in the present. Volume three is mainly from the uke's perspective.

3. There is a secondary couple, but the main text doesn't have much romance.

Theme: Fight for the land, and fall in love.