Meng Sangyu was the most carefree girl in Dianziwan, with a bright future ahead of her as the emperor’s illegitimate daughter.
Yet the whole village thought she was the most ill-fated person around.
All because she’d been strange and addled since childhood, and she was mute.
They said she lost her “father” when she was young, and that her “real mother” remarried when she was eight.
Even the fiancé she got at twelve was a sickly fellow who wasn’t expected to live long.
Fortunately, the sickly fellow made a full recovery when Meng Sangyu was sixteen.
Everyone in the village thought the mute girl’s good days were finally here.
But
Murders began happening all over Dianziwan.
In the end, Meng Sangyu, who possessed freakish strength, was thrown in jail.
(How did I end up becoming a suspect while minding everyone else’s business?)
The haunted city in the west was full of danger.
Meng Sangyu became the monsters’ favored guest.
(Why are ghosts so rich? Hand it over!)
Then came the election for village chiefs across Yidu.
How had Meng Sangyu, a woman, ended up being pushed into the running?!
(The notice never said women couldn’t be village chiefs! Anyone who tries to stop me is getting strangled by their village chief!)
As these dangerous events unfolded one after another, all the villagers realized there was one figure who kept showing up.
Di Feiwan, known as “Little Fourth Master.”
He was the Crown Prince’s study companion, the empress’s nephew, and the young man Shunqing Emperor liked best.
On the Crown Prince’s orders, he came to Dianziwan to investigate a case from sixteen years ago, when royal heirs were murdered in the palace.
The escaped slave Meng Sangyu was the perfect lead in the case.
So Little Fourth Master got her thrown in jail.
And then… he snuck into her cell every night to give the escaped slave a giant pork knuckle?
He took her to the haunted city to interrogate her.
And then… a ghost who’d been dead for years wanted to become sworn brothers with her??
With the wedding date drawing near, the pampered Little Fourth Master decided to take drastic measures.
Women serving as village chiefs weren’t allowed to marry for five years.
As for what would happen after five years…
What?!
No need to wait five years. The first thing Chief Meng did after making it big was to cut down the man she loved first???
One evening,
The female prince, dressed in a five-clawed python robe, produced an item and looked at it with distaste. “You’re twenty-one this year. That’s a bit old. I’m breaking off the engagement!”
Little Fourth Master: …
Little Fourth Master: ???
Waaah! He didn’t want that! He didn’t want to!
The court officials, all worn down until they barely looked human: We don’t want this either! We don’t!
Bonus Scene 1:
Meng Sangyu had always loved listening to gossip beneath the old tree at the village entrance, especially the recent tale about the most unfortunate person in the village.
Until one day, she learned that the unlucky woman had the same name as her and lived at the other end of the village.
Meng Sangyu: ???
Meng Sangyu: …
Meng Sangyu: You think you can bully me just because I can’t talk?!
Bonus Scene 2:
Di Feiwan: I went incognito, thought of everything, and made sure my plan was airtight!
Meng Sangyu, hard of hearing: What? What? Nothing left to drip?
Di Feiwan: …
Bonus Scene 3:
Before they were reunited:
Emperor: I wonder how my illegitimate daughter is doing, hidden away in some remote mountain village.
The ministers: Your Majesty! You… where did you get an illegitimate daughter?!
Emperor: …
After they were reunited:
The ministers: Your Majesty! Please do something about your illegitimate daughter. We can’t take it anymore!
Emperor: …Nonsense. I don’t have an illegitimate daughter!
A friendly reminder:
1. The heroine is eccentric, dramatic, and sweet-tongued. The hero is tsundere and sharp-tongued, but genuinely domestic.
2. It subverts the usual tropes, then leans toward melodrama later on.
3. The heroine is ill from the moment she appears (she’s been sick since the womb). Of course, the whole family is sick too (not really). Hahahaha.
4. The heroine is a little villainous, and things get intense right from the start (well, a little intense).
Theme: Career or a man? Is that really such a hard choice?
