His Muse

My next book is "After Becoming a Cannon Fodder, the Crown Prince Read My Mind". The blurb is at the very end.

[Mutual pining / Reunited after years apart]

Rich young master of the capital * down-on-his-luck sweetheart

Noble and aloof * gentle and healing

1.

The first time Yun Yao met Fan Qi, she had come to stay temporarily at the Fan family estate. She spotted the man in the back garden at a glance, his haughty, aloof profile like a silent sculpture from ancient Greece.

Yun Yao was lively and adorable, spoiled but not annoying. Though she was a transfer student, everyone liked her almost immediately.

Fan Qi was proud and haughty, cool and distant as the moon, and no one dared cross him. Everyone knew the young master in Class Seven, Senior Year, was the Fan family's most likely heir.

Their personalities couldn't have been more different. No one ever imagined the two of them together.

Yun Yao had always thought Fan Qi was like a deity, until one day, drunk, she grabbed the man's black suit tie and kissed his moist, soft lips while dazed.

He was cool all over, but for the first time, she saw a ripple in Fan Qi's eyes, like a stone of just the right size had been tossed in.

In its place came gasps and shudders completely at odds with his cool exterior.

2.

Everyone in Nancheng knew that the Fan family's famously handsome young master didn't know how to love. He was cold, callous, and proud.

The girls all wondered how a man as bright and noble as the moon might react if he had someone in his heart.

On the day Yun Yao was preparing to leave the Fan family, the man pinned her against the cold wall. His thick lashes lowered, hiding that flash of frenzied possessiveness.

His voice was indifferent, completely at odds with his words. "Can the person who made the first move really just walk away unscathed?"

-

Yun Yao had thought she would never see Fan Qi again.

Years later, she returned to the Fan family estate. The man wore a black suit and sat lazily in the seat of honor with his legs crossed. He raised his cool, indifferent eyes. "You're back."

People outside the family said the Fan family patriarch was kindhearted. He had taken in a young woman and even brought her home to look after her.

By then, Fan Qi was the Fan family's undisputed heir, while Yun Yao was just an utterly ordinary person.

-

Yun Yao had always thought Fan Qi had found her again to take revenge for making him fall first. After all, how could a lofty young master fall in love over one unintentional kiss?

Everyone else thought the same. How could some woman who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere ever catch Fan Qi's eye?

Until one day, an oil painting by Fan Qi, "Rose Girl", was revealed to the world. The girl's smooth, delicate back was covered in rose tattoos. Her snowy skin was like a painting, and only her long, lustrous black hair served as a flimsy cover.

That evening, the young master of the Fan family attended an event with the woman in the painting.

The famously noble and extravagant young master looked at the woman beside him with a smile in his eyes and declared his claim in front of all the reporters. "My muse, Yun Yao."

Only then did everyone realize that after taking such a winding route, the young master had simply wanted to keep his little ray of sunshine by his side.

The walls of my room are covered with your portraits. My dearest goddess of inspiration, you are the source of all my creativity.

-

Rich young master of the capital * down-on-his-luck sweetheart

Noble and aloof * gentle and healing

-

Reading Guide

The first part is a school-days flashback; most of the story is set in the city.

See Chapter One for specific content warnings.

Screenshot taken on 2023.1.13

Li Zhixi transmigrated into a book, becoming the short-lived cannon-fodder character who dares to poison the crown prince as soon as she appears in the original story.

The moment she transmigrated, she was holding a bottle of deadly poison. The crown prince, who was on the verge of death in bed, miraculously opened his eyes and met hers.

Li Zhixi, an obscure actress, immediately threw away the poison and dropped to her knees in front of the crown prince's bed, tears streaming down her face. "Your Highness, even though I was holding poison and about to harm you, I'm truly innocent!"

"..."

-

The crown prince was refined and elegant, but frail. In the original story, he died before the age of 22, firmly establishing his cannon-fodder status.

He sensed his death was near when he suddenly heard a woman's trembling voice.

[No wonder the crown prince has been handsome since childhood in the book. He really is something.]

???

[But can someone tell me why I became the cannon fodder who's supposed to send him off to the next life? Aaaaaah!!!]

The noise made him open his eyes. He met the gaze of the young woman before him, dressed in pale pink, looking extremely sweet and not very bright... a spy.

Theme: The ice melts in the sunlight.