Spring at Yumen

[The core premise is unchanged; blurb is provisional]

The eldest princess of the Sheng dynasty flees to the grasslands, loses her way, and is rescued by two brothers out hunting, who take her home.

The brothers have similar features, with only a slight difference in their eyes. The elder brother is strong and quiet, his lonely gaze like a night wolf on the grasslands. The younger brother is gentle and considerate, with crescent-shaped eyes as bright as a breeze.

They give the princess food and water, sew thick animal hides into winter clothes to keep out the cold, and climb the sacred mountains to gather herbs for her injured foot.

They care for her in every possible way.

But the princess remains wary. She fools the brothers into thinking she has lost her memory and doesn't know where her home is, afraid to reveal her identity too soon.

Her own brother was framed and killed, and the new emperor is determined to eliminate everyone connected to him. Only these remote grasslands can temporarily keep her safe from her pursuers.

The princess wants revenge, and for now, the only people she can turn to are the two hunters who share her tent. She asks them to send letters to contact her former ministers and subordinates.

The letters are delivered to the brothers.

The elder brother says nothing, sitting in the tent with his legs spread as he wipes the tips of his hunting arrows. The younger brother only smiles at the princess. The atmosphere freezes in an instant.

...Something seems wrong.

The princess, long accustomed to being waited on hand and foot, finally realizes it a little too late.

She looks down at the rabbit-fur boots on her feet, the freshly roasted lamb chops on the table, the dazzling exotic beads around her neck, and even the braids her brother-in-law personally wove for her this morning...

It is like a tightly woven net, a trap laid long ago to catch a lame and slow-witted rabbit like her.

Why would strangers who have never met her treat her kindly for no reason?

The younger brother smiles. "Cuicui is the pretty wife my brother and I picked up, so of course we'll treat you well."

-

While the younger brother is away, the princess gets the elder brother drunk and tries to escape on horseback. But she underestimates the strength of a man from the grasslands, and his anger at being deceived.

When she returns to the tent, her red lips are disheveled, and torn scraps of her dress are hastily wrapped around her shoulders.

The princess turns to the younger brother for help, acting weak and helpless, but he is no longer his usual gentle, easygoing self. Smiling, he produces a chain and says he will take it off after their wedding ceremony.

In tears, she demands that she be allowed to marry only one of them.

The brothers stand beside the bed, their towering shadows enveloping her.

"All right, then. Cuicui, would you like to choose the elder brother or the younger brother?"

Theme: Break with convention and push beyond yourself.