After Provoking the Yandere Crown Princess

[Six-year age gap / includes a groveling-for-forgiveness arc / pseudo-siblings with no blood relation / both are adults when they fall in love]

[Possessive younger female ghost top × gentle, sunny older woman bottom (roughly 0.8 vs. 0.2)]

[Crown Princess (later) × physician]

The powerful eldest princess, who ruled as regent in the emperor’s stead, had a young daughter who was targeted for assassination at the age of six.

At the moment of mortal danger, the little princess was saved by the family of Rong Dai, who had been sent to Jingzhou. From then on, she took a new surname and name and became the Rong family’s second daughter, Rong Wenshu.

The Rong family didn’t know who she really was, and Madam Rong treated her coldly.

The servants in the household were quick to read the room and often neglected her or looked at her with disdain.

Even the wives and young ladies from other households looked down on her when they heard she was an illegitimate daughter.

The Rong family’s eldest daughter, Rong Wenhua, had been proper, honest, and kind-hearted since childhood.

She sheltered Rong Wenshu under her wing, caring for her personally when she was ill, seeing to her clothes and meals, and keeping her company in their daily lives.

Five years later, a calamity left the two of them stranded in a remote mountain village. It was her elder sister who carried her, gravely ill and unconscious, through the night in search of a doctor. They had only each other.

When they were sent back to the capital, “Rong Wenshu” became Li Xu.

Her elder sister was also unwilling to leave her alone in this den of danger, so she asked to become an apprentice to the Imperial Medical Academy’s director.

Rong Wenhua was able to stay temporarily at the eldest princess’s residence. She worked hard studying medicine, leaving at dawn and returning at dusk, all so the two of them could still see each other from time to time.

Four years passed in this difficult way. At long last, Li Xu turned fifteen, came of age, and received her own estate and title. Just as their lives seemed about to improve, her elder sister said, “Every day and night in this princess’s residence, I feel like I can’t breathe,” and wanted to cut ties with her once and for all.

/////

Rong Wenhua left without hesitation. She accompanied her retiring mentor back to her hometown and was gone for five years.

By then, Li Xu could no longer tell when her feelings had changed into something else.

Over the years, she had felt guilt, hatred, and desperation, and had even secretly gone to see her...

When her elder sister finally returned to the capital, the feelings Li Xu had kept repressed at last twisted into dark, winding vines.

She wanted only to climb inch by inch, enveloping her completely and keeping her by her side forever.

*

Life lasts a mere hundred years or so. What face and identity should one present to the world?

Rong Wenhua, already in her twenties and with nothing to show for it, was deeply troubled.

To find a way to make her own place in the world, she waited until Li Xu was settled, then followed her mentor back home to study medicine.

Returning to the capital after five years, she had expected Li Xu to hate, resent, and blame her.

After all, she had spoken carelessly and hurt her first.

But she never expected this famed “tiger of the court,” this ruthless phoenix reborn from the ashes, to treat her just as she always had.

She would personally plead her case before the emperor, wheedle and pout to get her to stay at the residence, and, after drinking too much, fall to her knees in front of her, wrap her arms around her waist, and call her “Elder Sister” over and over with tears in her eyes.

Their deep sisterly affection had been rekindled.

And yet... something seemed different from before.

The princess would compete with her own young apprentice for her attention, coax her into calling her “Big Sister” just to hear it, and casually slip into her bed to sleep beside her.

The princess’s blazing gaze was always fixed on her, yet she would say, “Elder Sister cares more about other people now.”

“Did you hold someone else like this when you slept, too, Elder Sister?”

“Elder Sister... would you sit on top? Please.”

Theme: Strive for self-reliance and keep moving forward.