The Bright Moon Sees Through the Curtains

[Romance-focused blurb]

Afraid he would be lonely all by himself in the palace, she changed her appearance and entered the palace for a second time. On a night of bitter winds and rain, he pulled her into an abandoned hall where the curtains swayed, and took whatever he wanted from her.

After they had been intimate, he lay on her chest, playing with a damp lock of hair as he called her "Queque" again and again.

She thought she had wronged him, after all. So even when he mistook her for someone else, she let him do as he pleased with her for a long time.

Later, as her heart and mind opened, love grew within her until it reached for the sky. She no longer wanted to carry on with him without a matchmaker or marriage.

Having had a taste of her, he could not bear being rejected again. His eyes bloodshot, he pinned her against the desk, teasing her soft earlobe with the tip of his tongue as he continued to call her "Queque" again and again.

[Plot-focused blurb]

At fifteen, Jiang Mingyue crossed eight thousand li of mountain passes to reach the capital. The little beggar who used to trail behind her, surviving on the half a steamed bun he could get by calling her "big sister," had grown into a young emperor seated in the great hall, surrounded by ranks of gleaming swords and spears. He radiated authority without even getting angry.

She thought he had forgotten her...

But when her father forced her to take her younger half-sister's place and marry a wealthy family's mentally disabled son, he galloped up on horseback. With one hand, he gently supported her as she was pinned to the ground; with the other, he plunged an unsharpened dagger into the skull of the person holding her down, as easily as if it took no effort at all.

The little beggar who had once been content with half a steamed bun from her had become a killer, neat and efficient.

Not only neat and efficient, but even... casual.

With a corpse beside them and blood on his fingers, he nestled against her as if nothing had happened, tugged at her sleeve, and called her in a muffled, aggrieved voice, like a child pleading for attention:

"Big sister."

*

"When it comes to killing for my big sister, I never leave it to someone else."

The young emperor's first murderous impulse came one summer night, amid the croaking of frogs and chirping of insects.

He awoke from a dream that night and turned his head to see the old beggar, whose life his kind big sister had spared, sneaking a hand into her underpants as she slept...

Before that night was over, he went out. When he returned at dawn, he had a meat bun laced with rat poison in his hand.

In front of his big sister, he was innocent, carefree, and utterly guileless, the very picture of a sweet, harmless young man. But in truth...

His insides were rotten to the core.

His big sister was graceful and breathtakingly beautiful, while he was steeped in wickedness, with crimes too numerous to count.

*

[Reading tips]

This is a story about a brother who favors his sister beyond all reason, then ends up with no chance to chase after her when she grows up.

It's also a romance about a wolf in sheep's clothing, who clings relentlessly to his big sister amid the treacherous world of court politics.

Theme: Hold high office and worry for the people.