A Proud Branch Comes Over the Wall

Also known as #MyTentacleFianceKeepsTurningTheTablesOnMeEveryNight#

Lan Rong never knew that her aloof fiance, whom she had never met, was actually a longevity tree with a severe case of skin hunger.

Lan Rong was frail and sickly from birth. As a concubine's daughter, she was disliked by the Count's principal wife and sent to live at the estate as a child. She had only one old nurse to look after her, from childhood onward.

When she turned sixteen, her nurse told her that the principal wife had found a marriage match for her: Lu Shunqin, the young marquis of the Wuzhao Marquis's household, Chang'an's number-one rascal, famed for his wild and irreverent ways.

While everyone in the count's household laughed at her that night, Lan Rong discovered a tree that had mysteriously appeared in her courtyard. It was lush and towering, with walking aerial roots.

The tree waved its tentacles at her gently, as if it wanted a hug.

When Lan Rong tentatively embraced it, her ailments seemed to ease considerably.

The tree was also intelligent and patiently listened to every word she rambled on about.

As time passed, Lan Rong grew attached to it. "I like you so much. Will you come keep me company every night?"

From then on, the tree came by often each night.

It had many tentacles. It pushed her on a swing, lifted her high so she could see all of Chang'an, and beat up the people who had bullied her.

It was also a wishing tree. Whenever Lan Rong said she wanted to eat something, the next night its hollow was always full of delicious treats, all her favorites.

At the same time, the tree grew increasingly dissatisfied with nothing more than the occasional hug. It often wrapped around Lan Rong, pushing further and further, one step at a time.

Lan Rong liked it very much, but gently turned down its advances. "I have a fiance. I'm getting married in six months."

Unexpectedly, that only made the tree react more intensely.

Lan Rong couldn't escape. Embarrassed and annoyed, she scratched it with a fingernail and said she would never speak to it again.

Then, the next day at a palace banquet, she unexpectedly heard someone teasing Lu Shunqin. "Hey, young marquis, what's that red mark on your neck?"

Hidden behind a screen, Lan Rong could feel the young man's gaze turn toward her. He smiled with casual roguishness. "What do you think? Someone scratched me."

Everyone felt sorry for Lan Rong for being engaged to such a playboy who took nothing seriously.

But Lan Rong was concerned about something else: the tree that had kept her company for so long hadn't appeared for a whole month before her wedding.

Was it angry with her, so... was it avoiding her on purpose?

Lan Rong wanted to tell it that thanks to its good fortune, she had become healthy and had found her first dream: to become a businesswoman and earn enough money to support herself and the tree. Then she wanted to travel with it and see the mountains and rivers of the world.

She might have a mild temperament, but once she made up her mind, she would see it through.

On her wedding night, Lan Rong sat beneath her red veil with a divorce agreement under her bedding, anxiously waiting for Young Marquis Lu to arrive.

Instead, she heard a low, muffled laugh from nearby:

"Lan Xiaorong, if you don't untie the knot in these tentacles, how am I supposed to lift your veil?"

-

Lu Shunqin was a tree that had grown for ten thousand years. Before he took human form, people considered him useless timber and were about to cut him down when young Lan Rong saved him.

She watered and fertilized him on schedule, spoke to him every day, and encouraged him to live well.

When he met her, he thought he had encountered a deity.

Later, he took human form and married her as a young marquis.

Trees have no dreams, but Lan Rong does. So her dreams became Lu Shunqin's dreams.

She wanted to see all the mountains and rivers of the human world, and he would take her.

Not only that, he worked hard to earn honors, making her a first-rank lady and promising her all the finest glory in the world.

His deity would always deserve the very best.

[A clear-headed, sickly beauty who acts spoiled and gets away with it x a young marquis and street rascal who tries every day to play the wishing tree, but whose style keeps drifting further off course]

[One-on-one romance, happy ending]

Theme: Learn to love