The Proud Princess in Hiding

[The full text has been revised. The official version is more complete.] [Come follow my upcoming story, After I Was Struck by a Love Curse~] Qiao Wan had a dream. She dreamed that her father's head fell to the ground. A man drenched in blood pointed a dripping sword at her eyes and laughed seductively. “His Majesty is gone. Now it's the little princess's turn.” Just before she died, Qiao Wan managed to glimpse a dark red scar over the man's heart. * As the eleventh princess of the Li Kingdom, Qiao Wan had always been spoiled and domineering, and quick to tire of whatever caught her fancy. But at Pine and Bamboo House, she caught one glimpse of the “beauty” in a cage and could never forget him. The beauty was named Mu Chi, an entertainer at Pine and Bamboo House. He was so breathtakingly beautiful he could have been mistaken for a woman, and had been born unable to feel pain or sensation. When Qiao Wan confessed her feelings, he gripped a shard of a teacup until his palm was slick with blood. Yet he smiled faintly. “You admire me? If the princess can make me feel pain, I'll give her a little of my affection. How about it?” Qiao Wan thought it over, then smiled, her eyes curving. “Let's give it a try.” Qiao Wan brought Mu Chi back to the princess's residence, treasured and sheltered him, and became intimate with him. Just as she was figuring out how to ask the emperor to grant them permission to marry, the usually cold-blooded Mu Chi was struck through the chest by an arrow while protecting her third elder sister at the Mountain Sacrifice Ceremony. He never looked at Qiao Wan once. The wound over his heart was exactly like the one in her dream. Qiao Wan: “...” So it hadn't been a dream. It was real. But she couldn't understand why, when she finally left as he had wished, that unfeeling, ungrateful little beast clutched his chest and said, “It hurts so much.” * From childhood, Mu Chi had been treated like a monstrous beast. People could snap every one of his fingers, and he wouldn't feel a thing. All he knew was that he had to fight for what should have been his. Anyone could become a withered bone beneath his feet. Even Qiao Wan. Back then, Mu Chi never imagined that one day his heart would cramp with pain, and he would say to Qiao Wan: “Try one more time, Qiao Wan. Just once.” “Take pity on me. Try to love me.” Reading Guide ● The leads are devoted to each other in body and soul. The heroine is spoiled, domineering, and very easy to fool at first; the hero is a scheming little dog, both cunning and shameless. They have no national enmity or family feud between them. ● This is a fictional world with a very loose framework. The logic serves the romance. ● This is not a rebirth story. There is no past life; a dream is just a dream, and it changes along with reality. A melodramatic ancient romance with a groveling-and-regret arc. The author really loves this trope. There are countless good stories out there, so if this isn't your thing, feel free to drop it without telling me, mwah~ Coming soon: After I Was Struck by a Love Curse During a disturbance in the demon realm, the young flower spirit Hua Xun, not yet a hundred years old, broke into the Demon Palace and rescued her benefactor, the Demon Lord Baili Sheng. After three years together, Baili Sheng promised her, “When I return to the Demon Palace one day, I won't let you down.” Hua Xun believed him. But Hua Xun forgot that a demon was still a demon. The moment the moonlit fairy appeared before Baili Sheng, eyes red as she said, “You're still alive,” he forgot his promise. To prove his feelings to her, Baili Sheng even planted a love curse in her. The other person bound by it was the one he detested most: the Divine Lord Jiuqing. - Those struck by a love curse must see the person they love every day. Otherwise, they will weep blood and die. The aloof and immaculate Divine Lord Jiuqing pitied all living beings. With a soft sigh, he granted Hua Xun's request to cultivate by his side and taught her methods to calm her heart and suppress desire. Grateful, Hua Xun trained diligently every day and did her best to please him. Whenever her heart fluttered, she blamed the love curse, and felt terrible for harboring such irreverent thoughts about the Divine Lord. Until the elders of the immortal realm came to see him one after another and said bluntly, “Everyone in the three realms is saying that the Divine Lord is keeping a little demon.” The Divine Lord Jiuqing frowned faintly. Then, at the cost of damaging his own soul, he forcibly broke the ancient love curse binding Hua Xun and silently put distance between them. Hua Xun took the hint. Though disappointed, she left without hesitation. - Later, the demon realm's army invaded the Ninth Heaven. At its head, the Demon Lord held a wedding dress and demanded only one thing: a little demon. To prevent war from engulfing the three realms, and to repay Baili Sheng for freeing her from the curse, Hua Xun agreed to leave with him. But as she put on the wedding dress and climbed into the bridal sedan, dark clouds gathered over the mist-shrouded Ninth Heaven, and lightning streaked across the sky. The aloof Divine Lord appeared beyond the heavens, his voice gentle and echoing through the clouds. “A Xun, you dare marry him?” Theme: Freedom and love must never be betrayed.