Spoiled Brat

This is the second bonus story for "Prisoners of War," a parallel-universe tale about Xiao Fang and Xiao Wei. It's completely independent of the main plot, so you can read it without reading the original.

"As if time could turn back and none of the past had ever happened. A sixteen-year-old prince, raised in luxury, meets a general just returned from the desert and newly ennobled as a marquis. He rides with him through the imperial gardens, and neither knows what sorrow feels like. Their hearts and eyes are filled only with youthful brilliance and soaring ambition."

As before, it's a political intrigue and plot-driven story, with both sweetness and heartbreak. The ending is open-ended: they won't explicitly get together, but the possibility won't be ruled out completely either.

Synopsis: The son of a prince, so brilliant he seems almost demonic, is naturally openhearted and pure, and a martial arts prodigy. But because of his sensitive status, he's forced to hide his passion and ambition, posing as an arrogant, spoiled wastrel. For years, he bears the enormous political pressure on his father and maneuvers around the heart of power. Then his father's adopted son, a military genius from a remote border village, appears out of nowhere and returns at twenty-two, newly ennobled as a marquis. At last, he sees hope of protecting his family amid the struggle for the throne.

Theme: Being together isn't fate's inevitable outcome. Being in love is.