A Mess That Can't Be Cleaned Up

Li Yin was dull and clumsy, and people often called her a pretty airhead with nothing but good looks.

She refused to accept it. She glared at them, puffed up and fierce, several times over, but in the blink of an eye her anger would fade, and she would be so mad that tears welled up in her eyes again and again.

Red-eyed, she went to her widowed elder sister, who lived in the household of a marquis, several times. Her sister always comforted her.

But little by little, she realized that her sister's life was nowhere near as easy as she had imagined. She once again tried to stand up for her sister, glaring fiercely and full of righteous fury! But in the blink of an eye, she became a clay Bodhisattva crossing a river, powerless to save even herself.

A wolf or leopard had been watching her for who knew how long, waiting for the right moment to strike.

She went to a temple outside the capital and ran into him.

She spoke up for her sister and ran into him again.

Even when she hid in her room to nap after drinking too much, she still ran into him.

Li Yin found him crude and ill-mannered. But a few days later, a palace rebellion turned the court upside down overnight, and this man became the new ruler, soon to ascend the throne.

Li Yin was shocked and frightened, but this time, no matter how many tricks she had up her sleeve, he found one way or another to bring her into the palace.

After several rounds of this, Li Yin was full of grievances that she could only swallow. She dawdled and timidly tried to negotiate, asking when she could go home.

She was practically scared thin.

Xiao Zheng said nothing. He stared at her, not even bothering to rein in the wild hunger in his eyes.

.

Xiao Zheng's life motto was to take shortcuts whenever possible, never doing things the hard way. Once he set his sights on something, he never let go.

But one day, he heard Li Yin whisper to her sister, "Sister, I'll tell you something. I have principles. I won't go with him."

Xiao Zheng: ...

He cursed, his face dark with anger.

*

[If I'd known it would be this hard to sort out later, I would have done things by the book from the start.]

[Well, I was just too slow to make a move.]

Theme: There are no shortcuts in life.