The calculating, politically savvy female official (attacker) vs. the uncontrollable prisoner (receiver) (edited only to correct typos)
(If you read pirated copies, please don't comment. This book is being rewritten, and I expect to replace it with the revised version in the second half of the year. I'm not satisfied with the pacing of the earlier chapters. Most of the plot will remain unchanged.)
Everyone said that Gu Siyi, the daughter of the Gu family, was a celestial beauty, so breathtaking that one glance could topple a city, and more noble than a princess.
No one expected that, after her family was accused of treason and colluding with the enemy, Gu Siyi would fall from grace overnight and become a wanted outcast.
Sent to the imperial prison and sentenced to a beating with court staves, she clung to life in the harem, trading favors for a slim chance to survive. She once believed that the Second Princess, Ji Banban, who had presented evidence against her, was her sworn enemy for life. She never expected that she would become both a departed soul and her salvation.
Ji Banban had the powerful Ji family backing her and influence over the entire court, yet she deliberately drew close to Gu Siyi, a prisoner with nothing, with ulterior motives. Gu Siyi lamented, “Ji Banban, I don't have that kind of inclination.”
Ji Banban smiled. “You don't, but I do.”
Later, in order to survive, Gu Siyi used incense to drug Ji Banban and take advantage of her inclinations. They spent a passionate night together, but Gu Siyi never imagined that Ji Banban had seen through everything from the start.
Ji Banban: “Didn't you say you didn't have that kind of inclination?”
Gu Siyi smiled faintly. “I suppose I've gone mad.”
Outsiders said that the remnants of the Gu family could never make waves. As Gu Siyi sought the truth behind her family's supposed treason, she used Ji Banban to establish herself in the palace, rise to the heights of power, and uncover the truth about her family's alleged collusion with the enemy.
The first time someone asked:
“What is your relationship with the Second Princess?”
“We help each other survive.”
The second time someone asked:
“What is your relationship? Why does Her Highness favor you so much?”
“Friends.”
The third time someone asked:
“What exactly is going on between you two?”
“Devoted to each other, never to part for the rest of our lives.”
Later, in court, Ji Banban cowed the assembled ministers. This powerful official of a generation stooped to help the former prisoner take her place in the audience hall and participate in governance, leaving the ministers dumbfounded.
Bonus scene:
Gu Siyi: “The year Your Highness and I met, I was a rat scurrying across the street, a stench in the gutter. I owe you for not abandoning me and pulling me out.”
Ji Banban answered, her gaze drifting out the window. Red plum blossoms beside the wall stood against the white snow, just like the winter when she was five, nearly freezing to death. She had lain in the deep snow until a young lady from the Gu family happened to pass by and saved her life with a bowl of hot soup.
Reader's guide:
1. Political intrigue, devoted to each other, and the attacker is no good person.
2. A female general and an assassin, Hu Ji, are the secondary couple. Their ending is tragic.
A friend's book in the same political intrigue genre, worth a look:
"The Inner Court Official" by Jing Xian
Blurb:
There was an inner court official in the Princess's residence named He Ling.
He Ling entered the residence as a woman and lay low for over a decade. Then, in a single day, she seized control of military and political affairs. Rumors spread throughout the court that He Ling had secretly seized control of Princess Tang Yun and kept her confined in the Princess's residence for years.
What outsiders could not know was that, in truth...
The inner court official, who stained her hands with blood outside, always had to bathe again and again until she was clean before daring to visit the frail treasure in her heart, the beauty in her bedchamber.
A ruthless and fierce eunuch official + X + a frail, scheming princess
Theme: Fierce winds reveal the strength of grass; the cold of winter shows which trees remain evergreen.
This book is so well written!
I haven't seen such a wonderful Machiavellian article in a long time!
Ban Ban and Xiao Gu are each other's salvation. They met when they were children, and reunited when they were teenagers. A bowl of soup determined all the causes from then on. I really like the ambiguity between them in the early stage. Also, if there is a next life, I hope you can be born in a loving family, and don't suffer so much.
Yushan Pillow, when will you rise?
My be's deputy CP, when will there be a sequel 😭 😭 😭
Alas is so pitiful. She can't help herself. Can you make a sequel to redeem her?
Although it is as I thought, Ban Ban will be the emperor and Si Yi will be the empress, but it always feels like it is not over yet, because I still don't understand the meaning of Ji Ban Ban letting Cui Jicheng and Qiao Su go, and not hesitate to massacre the city to gather the troops of the previous dynasty? Is it just to create a chaotic scene where the remnants of the previous dynasty rebelled? And then let Cui Jicheng dig out his ancestor's grave? And isn't Feng Yiwan pregnant with a dragon? According to the pedantic thinking in ancient times, shouldn't Ji Banban be allowed to take power temporarily? If a baby boy is born, shouldn't he be pedantically appointed as the crown prince? It's so easy to accept Ji Banban as the emperor, and let Gu Siyi, who is also a woman, become the queen. The ministers didn't even make a fuss. This pedantic dynasty is quite enlightened...?
It was so easy to overthrow Chi Ge's old recommendation, but I couldn't figure out the ending of the killer sent by the little emperor...
I bought this novel on another account, but I couldn't help myself and ordered it all again using this account. I support the author greatly. I like Ji Banban very much.
Oh, I feel so sorry for Allah