Only later did Xuxu learn that a man with a disability lived in the most secluded garden in the residence.
He was her fourth uncle in name only: gaunt, frail, and weak, like a worm-rotted bamboo stalk, hidden away from the world.
When she was little, Xuxu wandered in by accident. She pushed open the door and saw her fourth uncle sitting in a wheelchair, an old book in his hands, his features as lovely as the moon.
She stared, entranced, thinking he must be the most beautiful person in the world.
For years afterward, her fourth uncle never once left the garden.
Meanwhile, Xuxu, the legitimate daughter of the Xin family, blossomed into a graceful beauty, renowned throughout the capital.
-
A noblewoman of a prestigious family, a peerless beauty, Xin Xuxu was so admired that even the Empress Dowager corresponded with Old Madam Xin, considering bringing Xuxu into the palace to attend the emperor.
Such was Xin Xuxu: she could have been proud and haughty, yet she had a tender heart and was so sweet that people could not help but cherish her.
Her grandmother said, "Xuxu, there's no harm in being a little spoiled."
Xuxu thought she was already quite willful. Just yesterday, her cousin had tricked her into meeting him in the corridor to confess his feelings. She had been so frightened that she accidentally shoved him into the lake. Fortunately, a servant rescued him in time.
She wondered what she would do if her cousin tried to take liberties again.
Little did she know that day would come so soon.
At her coming-of-age ceremony, dressed in all her finery, with her dark hair arranged like clouds and skin as pale as snow, she fell into her cousin's trap right in her own home.
Dazed by the effects of the drug, Xuxu stumbled into the secluded garden.
She thought her fourth uncle, who seemed like an immortal, would surely save her from danger.
She had no idea that the man who once had the elegance of bamboo had spent ten years in darkness, nurturing thoughts as gloomy as they were vile.
She saw him as a green bamboo stalk in human form. In truth, he was nothing but the most venomous snake coiled around it.
-
In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, the newly appointed second-place laureate was compiling the history of Great Chu when he unearthed a yellowed file.
It recorded the story of the brilliant top scholar from ten years earlier.
Cui Shu.
He had been the most dazzling phoenix flower of that year.
Born to a poor family, he had swept the imperial examinations, taking first place at all three levels, then ridden through the streets on horseback with an air of elegance.
Yet the next day, he had become the fourth master of the Duke's mansion. His legs had inexplicably been broken, and he had spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
The noble young women who had admired him left heartbroken.
The phoenix flower withered in a desolate garden.
Ten years later, Cui Shu wheeled himself out of the Duke's mansion, willingly leaving his "prison."
He went to the banquet where a husband was to be chosen for Xuxu. As he looked at the many noble young men vying for her favor, his gaze turned icy.
Someone recognized him and began whispering.
What, they wondered, had brought him here?
Cui Shu pressed his lips together. He looked all around, but Xuxu was nowhere to be seen. His cold, stern gaze swept over the men showing off like peacocks.
Hmph.
Showing off in public.
"To choose a husband," he said, delivering his warning with a perfectly straight face.
[Reader's Notes and Content Warnings]
1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced; their age gap is twelve years.
2. The male lead has a disability.
3. The plot is light; the focus is mainly on the romance.
4. The setting is fictional.
Theme: Love comes from the heart, and presses forward without hesitation.
