Tempt and Tame

After a change of dynasty, the new emperor launched a bloody purge, executing the entire former imperial family and torturing some of their old officials to death.

Blood ran through the palace, a scene too horrific to bear.

Some time later, on his birthday, someone presented him with a missing princess of the former dynasty.

Just as everyone dreaded imagining how she would die, the new emperor opened her cage and knelt on one knee before her.

He raised her jade-white hand and kissed the back of it.

When he lifted his eyes, his gaze was tender and obedient. “Master, did I do well?”

-

Years earlier, on the birthday of Princess Yue Jian of Great Zhou, her royal brother gave her an unusual slave as a gift.

The boy in the cage had his hands and feet bound and a collar locked around his neck. His deep-set eyes were as still as a pool of dead water.

Looking into his eyes, Yue Jian gave him a meaningful smile.

“From now on, I am your master. I always will be.”

She kept the boy by her side, raising him as a slave, training him into a blade, and tempting him to become her companion.

Later, she was imprisoned, and he led her on an escape that took them all the way to the edge of a cliff, where there was nowhere left to go.

Yue Jian kissed his forehead and smiled. “Take revenge for me.”

Then she leaped off the cliff without hesitation.

From then on, he took up his blade, mounted his horse, and crossed mountains of corpses and seas of blood to avenge her grievances and fulfill her plans. Then he laid it all before her.

In exchange for a reward.

● This story is set in a fictional world, with many original details. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy.

● Neither lead is a good person in the conventional sense. Fans of the male lead and readers with strict moral standards, please steer clear.

(Blurb written on January 10, 2021, and saved as a screenshot.)

Premise: Equality between men and women