Portrait of a Beauty

[Full novel chapters are being written in advance]

Before marrying into the Prince of Xiang's household, Wen Zhi had only met Xiao Yiqiu three times.

The first time was beneath a rocky overhang, where she had taken shelter from the wind and rain on a difficult journey to deliver scriptures to Shuiyun Temple at her master's command. She was a Taoist nun praying and cultivating herself, while he was the Emperor's seventh son, ordained as a monk in his place. He warned her that rain would blow into the spot where she was standing, then courteously invited her to shelter with him.

The second time was after she returned to the capital, on a side road where she had resolutely fled a banquet full of familiar faces who had become strangers. She was an orphan with no one to rely on, while he was a prince restored to his former glory. Beneath the moonlight, the man pointed to a small building nearby and told her it was quiet, and no one would disturb her there.

The third time was at a private banquet with no other guests. He placed the imperial decree arranging their marriage before her, carrying himself with an air of detachment. His words were perfunctory and insincere: "It is my honor to marry the capital's most beautiful woman."

Wen Zhi had always believed Xiao Yiqiu married her to dispel suspicions that he was connected to a faction, and to live in the secular world as an idle prince with no worldly desires.

She was grateful to him and respected him. Carefully, she took each step forward under the protection he could offer, never daring to cause him the slightest trouble and always thinking of how to repay him.

Until one day, she found a painting in his study: a forest in the rain, and a lone girl like a fledgling.

It was from the day she first met him, when she had found a fledgling fallen from its nest in the mountains and climbed over rocks and up a branch to put it back.

The woman in the painting was her, and yet not her.

At the very least, her hair could not possibly have been that messy, and her collar could not have been so loose that it was about to slip off her shoulder!

And what respectable girl wears a skirt without underpants, with the slit cut all the way up to her thigh?

The whole painting was outrageously sensual, clearly a man's salacious fantasy!

Wen Zhi's heart raced. As she stepped backward, she bumped into a solid chest.

She hurriedly turned around and hid the painting behind her.

In that instant, the man's desire burst free like a beast breaking out of its cage, charging toward her without restraint.

He reached behind her, pulling her and the painting into his arms. "So you saw it. Why hide it?"

1. Both leads have only been with each other, but the female lead has a very prominent ex-boyfriend. #The whole world is empty to me, except she is my desire# #I only have eyes for my darling, but she says we've never met#

2. Kind, steadfast, peerlessly beautiful woman VS ambitious, possessive hypocrite who wants to break his vows

3. Still undecided.

Started on 2024.1.25. Screenshot.

Theme: Supporting one another and moving forward together through adversity