A shameless woman who knows when to bend and when to stand tall x a possessive man who overthinks everything
1
The capital of Great Jin has fallen, and everyone in the palace is trapped like fish in a barrel.
The young emperor, who has been on the throne for less than ten days, trembles. "Aunt, I heard all the remnants of the old dynasty will have their heads cut off and hung on the city walls. Manman is afraid of pain. Just stab Manman to death..."
Xiao Ling: "Have some backbone! The Crown Prince of Qi was once at your aunt's beck and call. If anyone grabs you later, just shout that Ji Quan is your father. Got it?"
Everyone knows that while the Crown Prince of Qi, Ji Quan, was held hostage in Jin, he served the Grand Princess as her personal stable boy. With that connection, even if the enemy troops suspect something, they'll spare their lives.
But no matter how carefully she planned, she never expected the one surrounding the palace with troops to be Ji Quan himself.
Xiao Ling: ...This plan has gone badly wrong.
She is about to cover the young emperor's mouth when he wobbles off, throws his arms around Ji Quan's leg, and looks up with tear-filled eyes. "Dad!"
Ji Quan, still seeing red from the killing: ???
2
When Ji Quan first met Xiao Ling, she was a lofty princess of Jin, the Empress Dowager's daughter and the Emperor's younger sister, with skin like ice and jade and peerless beauty.
Someone so noble had used every means to seduce and entangle a lowly hostage like him, giving him the only warmth he had in a foreign land. When their love reached its height, he decided to return home and vowed to give her an even more exalted status. But then he heard her casually tell someone
"He's just a stable boy. It's his good fortune that he looks a little like Ji Zheng."
Ji Zheng was his late eldest brother.
That night, standing outside the palace walls, he crushed the sword his brother had left behind with his bare hands.
And now, just to save her own skin, she's telling the descendant of the former dynasty to call his enemy father.
Heh. Does she think he's still that easy to fool?
1. The child is his biological child.
2. Only the male lead is guaranteed to be pure in both body and heart.
3. This is a fictional setting, so don't nitpick the history (some elements are inspired by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period).
Blurb captured on June 1, 2023.
Theme: Better to live on miserably than die well.
