A Little Perfection

1.

Shao Yuan was not yet of age.

Her family was arranging a marriage for her adoptive older sister, and she watched the proceedings like a spectator enjoying a show.

The man was handsome, skilled in both letters and martial arts. Even in the capital, where brilliant talents gathered, he was the most outstanding and exceptional of them all, truly peerless.

Her adoptive sister praised him sincerely. "I hear the general was exceptionally valiant on the battlefield, cutting down enemy commanders and seizing their banners, a match for ten thousand men."

Zong Xu replied casually, "It was all right. The enemy was just too weak. Someone like you would be sliced into a human kebab with one stroke of my sword."

Her adoptive sister went pale and covered her mouth with a handkerchief, looking ready to throw up.

Zong Xu added, "Don't be afraid, miss. I don't use a sword on the battlefield."

Her complexion improved a little.

Zong Xu continued, "I use a spear. Someone like you, I could impale three at once. Yes, just like the watermelon on the silver fork in your hand."

Her adoptive sister finally couldn't hold it in and vomited.

Shao Yuan: "..."

He would be a perfectly good person if only he didn't open his mouth.

2.

Shao Yuan knew better than to provoke Zong Xu, so she kept her distance.

But by a twist of fate, she ended up marrying him.

When the weather turned cold, she dressed a little more warmly.

Zong Xu said meaningfully, "Little Yuan-yuan."

After she'd just bathed, she got dirty again.

Zong Xu lifted her into the bathing tub and rinsed her off.

His dark eyes were smiling. "Little rice dumpling."

Shao Yuan: "...Could you act like a normal person?"

After they married, Shao Yuan often got so mad she scratched him.

Sometimes, she wanted to bite him to death.

Once, she was so angry that she ignored him for three days.

Zong Xu: "Little A-Yuan?"

"Little A-Yuan, I got hurt just now. It really hurts."

"Little A-Yuan, why aren't you talking to me?"

"Sigh, I'm so jealous of the man who almost got engaged to Little A-Yuan before me. He has no official duties, and all he has to do each day is keep the pretty ladies in his household company. Unlike me, with only Little A-Yuan in my household, and I still want to earn her a first-rank noble title. I'm busy with official business every day and can't stay by her side all the time. Little A-Yuan is angry and refuses to talk to me, and I know I'm in the wrong, with no way to defend myself..."

Shao Yuan couldn't take it anymore. "...Shut up."

3.

Her adoptive older sister had long been unhappy with her own marriage arrangement.

The man she was to marry was cold and heartless, and knew nothing of love.

Eventually, she steeled herself and stole Shao Yuan's match. That man was truly a member of the imperial family.

She imagined she would be surrounded by passionate love, destined to become empress and stand above everyone, while Shao Yuan would weep day and night and kneel before her in pitiable submission.

But when she was exhausted in body and mind and utterly disheveled, she looked back and saw Shao Yuan beneath the brilliant lanterns, cherished and protected in her husband's arms. That proud man lowered his head, holding a skewer of bright red candied hawthorns between his long, strong fingers and speaking gently, all to coax Shao Yuan into smiling at him.

Theme: Love wholeheartedly