[Mad Regent x Innocent, Sweet Princess]
Jiang Lingjun is the thirteenth princess of Great Yan. Because she was born frail and her mother was lowborn, she was raised in a palace away from the capital, ignored by everyone.
In the third year of Jianyuan, disaster struck the imperial palace. The emperor, empress, and princes were slaughtered overnight. Only the thirteenth princess, far away in the palace retreat, escaped the massacre.
That day, Jiang Lingjun was chasing butterflies at the foot of a wall when she turned and bumped into a young man. His eyes were rimmed with ice, his face utterly bloodless, and the knife at his side gleamed coldly.
The youth frowned. But when he looked down, he saw her watery eyes blinking up at him. "Did Father Emperor send you to play with me?"
"No."
"Then can you take me away?" Her voice was soft and sweet, and her tiny new teeth glimmered in the sunlight.
His throat bobbed. A strange smile curled at his lips as he drawled, "I can, but you have to promise me one thing."
The little girl gazed at him blankly, then slowly nodded.
*
Only after Jiang Lingjun was taken out of the palace retreat did she learn that he'd gone there that day to kill her. He was alive for the sole purpose of slaughtering every member of the Great Yan royal family.
But after meeting her, he changed his mind. Besides killing her for revenge, he could also have fun with her.
He dressed her in robes embroidered with dragon claws, taught her to put on an act in front of the ministers, and even insisted on holding her while she ate and slept. He wouldn't let her tell anyone about any of it...
*
That night, Jiang Lingjun rubbed her thighs and glanced at the mountain of memorials piled on the desk. She said to him seriously, "How about you just kill me instead?"
The youth, now fully grown, held her in his arms and quietly took the brush from her hand. "I can't bear to."
Reader's Guide:
1. Happy ending, sweet romance, mutual healing.
2. Includes a coercive romance plot.
3. Alternate history, modeled on the Wei-Jin period.
Blurb written on August 11, 2022
Theme: Growth and healing
