Sharp-tongued tsundere x alluring temptress
Jiang Shiyue, the third young lady of the Guangping Marquis household, lost her mother when she was young and was raised in the countryside. Recently brought back to the capital, she declared that the man she would marry had to meet three conditions.
If his family was too powerful, no. There would be too many rules.
If he was too ugly, no. Just looking at him would make her sick.
If he was aloof and overbearing, no. He would be too hard to handle later.
The newly appointed crown prince, Xiao Mingzhan, had just come of age and moved into the Eastern Palace. He was at the height of his confidence, and he had three conditions of his own for his future crown princess.
If her family was too powerful, no. Her relatives might form a faction at court.
If she was too beautiful, no. Beautiful women were usually domineering troublemakers.
If she was spoiled and willful, no. Women and petty men were both difficult to deal with.
But at a banquet hosted by the prime minister's residence, Jiang Shiyue was the first to set her sights on Xiao Mingzhan, seated alone in a corner sipping tea.
She didn't know who he was. She only saw that he was handsome, looked good-natured, and wore white robes that made him seem rather poor.
He was an ideal husband by her standards.
Crown Prince Xiao Mingzhan was adept at balancing the court, keeping his brothers in check, and soothing the old emperor's increasingly severe suspicions. Though he trod on thin ice, he handled it all with ease.
He never expected that the first half of his life, which had gone more or less as he wished, would be marred by a single banquet, where a woman he'd never met schemed against him from beginning to end.
It was a terrible humiliation. The crown prince was red-eyed with rage.
*
Jiang Shiyue prided herself on her sharp eye, but she had been wrong only twice.
First: The hapless man she carefully picked out at the banquet turned out to be the crown prince himself.
Second: The crown prince seemed good-natured, but he was actually very good at pretending (and seriously unhinged)!
Xiao Mingzhan, who had always planned for every eventuality, had also made only two mistakes in his life.
First: He thought the sixth young lady of the Jiang family, who had lost her mother, was a timid crybaby who could do nothing but weep.
Second: He thought he would never fall for a beauty who caused so much trouble.
Theme: Love at first sight
