Climbing the Willow

During a private trip through the south, Crown Prince Liu Zhan is suddenly grabbed around the waist by an unfamiliar young woman in front of a crowd. Noticing that she is not carrying a hidden weapon, Liu Zhan signals his attendants to stay their hands while discreetly reaching for the sword up his sleeve. She looks up at him from his arms, sobbing until her tears soak his lapel. "You've finally come for me, my husband, A-Zhan..." Each word is more outrageous than the last. Liu Zhan is wary and annoyed, but when he meets her soft, affectionate gaze, her love for him utterly unconcealed, he is briefly lost in a daze. He covers her hand and tries to pry it off, but she grips him tightly and refuses to let go, insisting she can never be parted from her husband, A-Zhan, again. "How dare you, you insolent woman!" His attendant is about to rebuke her, but Liu Zhan waves him off. "Take her back first." He initially intends to interrogate the woman, whose origins are unknown and whose story is full of suspicious details. But day after day, the interrogation somehow ends up taking place beneath the covers. After one night, Liu Zhan truly becomes her "husband." When his tour ends, a palace maid named Yin Zhao joins the Eastern Palace. Over the next three years, although the Crown Prince often summons Yin Zhao to his bed, he never gives her a formal title. She never complains, serving him with all her heart. She tends to him at his sickbed without changing out of her clothes, and keeps him company in the Cold Palace for months while he is being deposed. One day, Yin Zhao hides behind a willow tree and overhears the Seventh Prince ask, "Elder Brother, are you really going to take a Crown Princess? What about Lady Yin? She'll be heartbroken." Liu Zhan replies coldly and indifferently, "So what if she's heartbroken? She used despicable methods to climb into my bed. She should have known this day would come." - After the royal army's triumphant return, in the command tent, Crown Prince and commander Liu Zhan glances at the betrothal gifts list and sets it aside. Instead, he picks up Yin Zhao's register and stares at it for a long time. He takes up his brush and writes the title of Attendant Consort after her name, then changes it to Noble Consort, then to Crown Princess, only to hurriedly cross it out with red ink. A secret report is delivered to the tent. The Crown Prince loses his wits and gallops out of the camp alone, returning to the capital ahead of schedule. As soon as he steps into the Eastern Palace, his heart pounds. He searches everywhere, his chest heaving, but cannot find Yin Zhao. She really has left, leaving behind only a note: I mistook you for someone else. It turns out she meant A-Zhan, not A-Zhan. She did not climb up to the willow tree. She was the moon hanging high above, a moon he could never reach. One-on-one romance, both leads' first and only partner An energetic, sunny heroine × a distant, suspicious, and dark hero The hero and heroine are each other's one and only, body and soul. (This involves spoilers, so I won't elaborate.) 2. The title comes from the Tang dynasty poem "Looking South at the Yangtze": "Do not climb me, for I am too partial. I am the willow by the pond at Qujiang. This one plucks me, then another comes along. Our love lasts but a moment." 3. An old-fashioned, angsty, melodramatic romance, written with abandon. To avoid a mismatch in tastes, please read with caution. Subscribe chapter by chapter, and don't impulsively buy the whole novel. Theme: Sincerity answered with sincerity