A spoiled, theatrical princess x a scheming wolf of a prince
Zhou Yuwu, the legitimate princess of the Qi Dynasty, has unmatched beauty and a truly vicious heart.
Three years ago, she ruined Prince Huai's wedding plans and nearly got him killed on the border. When the dynasty fell and Prince Huai's rebel army stormed the capital, she took advantage of the chaos to flee the palace.
When Shen Xingyan heard that the princess was hiding on Yanmingshan, he sent men to block every route down the mountain overnight.
But when they charged up the mountain, they found that she hadn't even planned to run. She was sitting calmly in a bamboo grove, playing the qin.
She wore a thin white gauze dress, the stream washing over her slender ankles. Beneath the bright moon, she was as beautiful as a celestial maiden in a painting.
Everyone was on alert. What was this wicked woman up to now? Their Highness had nearly been killed by her three years ago. He absolutely wouldn't fall for her beauty trap again!
Shen Xingyan stared at her for a long time, his expression unreadable. At last, he took off his dark cloak, wrapped it around her, and lifted her into his arms.
Everyone: …
The good news: Their Highness is a hero.
The bad news: Even heroes are powerless against a beautiful woman. Sigh.
*
After the Great Qi fell, everyone around Zhou Yuwu urged her to run, as far away as possible.
Zhou Yuwu smiled bitterly. She had been a puppet princess for eighteen years. The world cursed her as a femme fatale, and the new emperor hated her to the core. Where could she possibly run to?
She bribed one of Shen Xingyan's attendants and learned that he kept a treasured painting by his bedside, one he'd held onto for years. The painting showed the woman he had longed for but could never have, whose face resembled hers by about thirty percent.
In the depths of winter, she copied the woman in the painting, clutching a qin and shivering as she walked into the icy stream.
Her original plan was to pretend to be his unattainable first love, make him fall for her, tame him into a dog who would protect her, and then find a chance to contact the Imperial Guards her mother had left her.
The first two steps went smoothly for Zhou Yuwu. It wasn't until the third, when he fiercely knocked her down and had his way with her, that she realized through her tears that the creature she'd tamed wasn't a dog at all. It was a wolf.
*
Much later, Zhou Yuwu sat on Shen Xingyan's lap, looking the painting over from every angle in confusion. "When did I ever play the qin in a bamboo grove?"
Shen Xingyan wrapped an arm around her waist and asked nonchalantly, "It's artistic license. Ever heard of it?"
Zhou Yuwu thought for a moment. "And the red marks on my neck are artistic license too?"
Shen Xingyan lowered his eyes to the marks he had left on her neck the night before. "Those are realism."
Zhou Yuwu's face instantly flushed. She tossed the painting aside and tried to get up, but the man behind her lifted her onto the desk and pressed himself against her.
No one knew that when Shen Xingyan ordered the mountain sealed off that day, he had intended to take her by force while she was at his mercy.
Five years ago, he had been pursued by rebels and forced to leap off a cliff. He lost his sight and shattered the bones in his legs. He lay in a bamboo grove for half a year, thinking of her face in the darkness every day, and that was what kept him going.
Everyone believed he hated her to the core. Only the wind that brushed the young man's heart on the day they first met knew how many years he had longed for her.
.
Theme: Redemption
