[Reborn pampered white moonlight x tight-lipped, secretly passionate general]
Everyone in the capital knew that Zhu Jin'an hated You Ren.
When she jumped from the palace wall,
You Ren, who had always knelt to serve her, looked down at her for the first time. Then he reached out and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, Zhu Jin'an had arrived three years in the future.
Here, she was the martyred princess whom everyone mourned and prayed for. A golden statue had even been erected for her outside the lord's residence.
The master of this city was named You Ren.
Zhu Jin'an remembered those cold eyes and shivered.
What was wrong with him?
Why build a statue for his enemy?
She huddled among the poor gathered to leave the city and smeared another layer of ash over her pretty face.
But when she turned around, just like back then,
she met those same eyes again.
The man dismounted, walked over, and crouched down to meet her gaze.
His heavy stare pinned her in place.
How dare he!
Zhu Jin'an almost scolded him on instinct.
But You Ren spoke first. "I know Your Highness hates me most of all."
He reached out and wiped a little black ash from the corner of her mouth.
Zhu Jin'an instinctively flinched away.
When she looked down, she saw his gold-embroidered boots beside her thin, worn-out shoes with a hole in them.
Suddenly, she couldn't bring herself to curse him.
The man above her gave a low laugh.
"So, can you guess what I want most right now?"
*
As soon as You Ren entered the official world, he was chosen by the most powerful princess in the palace, Princess Zhaoning.
After that, his career never took off.
Instead, Zhu Jin'an found new ways to humiliate him every day.
The top scorer of the imperial examinations became known to everyone as the princess's lover.
You Ren never once tried to explain.
On the day of the palace coup, he rushed there and saw only a flash of red falling from the palace wall.
He knew he couldn't catch her.
Yet in his nightmares, he tried again and again, thousands upon thousands of times.
Until that same face appeared before him once more, wearing the same willful expression as before.
She was clearly asking for help, yet still acted every bit the princess.
She said,
"Just pretend I'm dead!"
*
No bitter hatred, and the man has loved her in secret.
An alternate-world setting, both leads have only been with each other.
Theme: Live well.
