Tenderly Tamed

Yue Wen Ye's bare face outshines the popular stars on posters, yet she turns down all the big-name acting jobs her family arranges for her.

She only takes a few obscure voice-acting gigs for games.

Her family repeatedly frowns at her lack of ambition.

Only her uncle, Yue Yanting, who has played with her since she was little, takes it all in stride with a laugh.

After Yue Yanting takes over as the group's CEO, rumors say he's a ruthless force in the business world. But at home, he'll still wrap himself in a blanket and stay up all night gaming with her.

#

At twenty, Yue Wen Ye's identity as a fake heiress is exposed at the engagement banquet for her arranged marriage.

Overnight, she falls from being a rich young lady of a prominent Jiangcheng family to a penniless nobody.

Yue Wen Ye doesn't regret a thing. She never wanted to try some sort of marriage-first, love-later romance with an overbearing CEO who looks down on everyone.

The day she leaves the Yue family, autumn rain falls in a steady drizzle.

The family who were hers yesterday are now strangers, regarding her as a thorn in the side of the Yue clan.

Even the maids who once obeyed her every word now roll their eyes at her, watching her closely as if afraid she'd take even a single thread from the Yue household.

In full view of everyone, her adoptive mother puts an arm around her biological daughter and sneers at Yue Wen Ye. "Of course you're not a Yue. You do nothing but laze around all day. Let's see how you survive."

Yue Yanting cancels a board meeting at the last minute and rushes home. His little princess stands in the misty rain like a proud water chestnut leaf, leaving him with nothing but her defiant, determined back.

He grabs Yue Wen Ye's pale wrist.

"Uncle..."

"What did you call me?"

Yue Wen Ye: ???

He had never wanted to be her "uncle."

In the fine rain, water drips from Yue Yanting's forehead, clinging to his lashes. Even his usually bright eyes seem streaked with tears.

"Here, you can keep this and play with it yourself, Mr. Yue." Yue Wen Ye smiles mischievously, leaving behind an old game controller she'd played with until she was tired of it.

Mr. Yue?!

"Stay right there." His voice is low. This time, he's not teasing her. "You said it yourself."

??? Yue Wen Ye can't remember saying anything to her uncle besides something about playing games.

"I don't need you to be a world-saving hero. I only want you to be my very own Great Sage, Heaven's Equal."

A clear, unfamiliar yet familiar voice rings out.

Only Yue Wen Ye recognizes it as the male voice from her voice-acting game.

#

On their wedding night, Yue Yanting holds the princess on his lap, turns off the game's background music, and insists she help him beat the level.

Yue Wen Ye can't fathom just how much madness was hidden beneath the refined exterior of the gentle, elegant uncle she'd known.

Eight-year age gap

Theme: Devotion to one person for life