The Crown Prince and I Live in Perfect Harmony

Please add Toying with the Aloof Beauty, Then Finding There's No Escape to your reading list! The blurb is below.

--- [Warning: melodrama ahead] ---

Ming Yunzhi is the beautiful daughter of a high-ranking official, with a graceful figure and striking looks. She is a renowned beauty in the capital.

She was betrothed to the crown prince as a child and grew up observing every rule and propriety, never making a single mistake. When she came of age, she married into the Eastern Palace in a grand wedding and became the crown princess in name and in fact.

In their three years of marriage, everyone in the palace praised and adored her.

Everyone except her husband, Pei Yu.

On their wedding day, Pei Yu lifted her veil. Seeing her lovely face, the first thing he said was, "As my crown princess, you must put love after everything else."

When his lips, cold and restrained, touched hers without a trace of affection, she already saw what her future would be.

She and the crown prince would live in harmony and treat each other with respect, but there would be no love between them.

In the third year of their marriage, Ming Yunzhi happened to realize that Pei Yu had changed somehow.

He used to return to his study as soon as court ended, but now he hurried straight to her bedchamber, cuddling up to her and chatting;

He had never prepared a special gift for her before, but now he injured his hand making her an ugly lantern;

Pei Yu, who had never pressed her to bear him an heir, now buried his face against her neck and murmured, "Yunzhi, give me a child."

When she didn't answer, he became more and more forceful, demanding a reply.

...In the end, the ladies of the capital all came to her for advice on how to manage their husbands.

Ming Yunzhi: ...What?

-

Pei Yu held a lofty position, surrounded by scheming rivals. He had seen through the world from an early age and never believed in love.

Until one day, he had a strange dream. When he woke, his head was splitting and his heart was in agony.

He gazed at the woman sleeping peacefully beside him, his expression complicated.

He had always thought himself incapable of love.

Until his dream repeatedly showed him the day they first met. Beyond a four-panel screen decorated with seven-colored flowers, jade pendants chimed softly. A bright young girl, pretending to be mature, stepped out one small step at a time, the fragrance of orchids growing stronger.

Someone said, "Yunzhi, this is His Highness the Crown Prince."

The girl blushed, lowered her almond-shaped eyes, and bowed in greeting.

He clenched his palm and called her, "Little Sister Yunzhi."

He was a clever man.

And a clever man would never repeat his past mistakes.

1. The male lead gradually remembers his past life.

2. Marriage first, love later. He pursues his wife after marriage. Both leads are virgins.

3. Old-fashioned tropes, slow burn, melodramatic push and pull. You don't need to tell me if you drop the story.

The premise came to me on October 12, 2023. I wrote the blurb in the early hours of October 25, and have screenshots of both.

Toying with the Aloof Beauty, Then Finding There's No Escape blurb:

The Jingyuan Marquis's household has just taken in a new batch of maids.

Cen Xu gives them a casual glance and immediately recognizes the most brazen one. A few days ago at the Drunken Moon Pavilion, she had sung a Jiangnan song off-key and flirted with him in an affected, coquettish manner.

As heir to the marquis's household, Cen Xu has been dignified and restrained since childhood, noble to the core and indifferent to women.

So when he realizes she is approaching him with ulterior motives, he coldly orders someone to step forward and lift her chin.

He hasn't even said a word of warning when the shameless little maid drops to her knees, looking mortified.

"Young Master, I've already left that life behind. I will never again take a job that requires me to sell myself!"

Cen Xu's face darkens in an instant.

-

Yuan Xi is the daughter of a minor official. She is charming and beautiful, and greedy for money and men. Then everything changes overnight. Her family falls into ruin, and she is sent to the Drunken Moon Pavilion, where anyone can bully her, a delicate flower in a den of wolves.

By chance, the old madam of the Cen family finds her and offers her a large sum of money to enter the household and continue the Jingyuan Marquis's family line.

Yuan Xi loves money and immediately agrees.

But when the old madam offers to give her a formal title, Yuan Xi shakes her head and refuses.

She has no grand ambitions. Hugging her banknotes, she thinks happily: A wife is no match for a concubine, and a concubine is no match for a secret lover. But better than a secret lover is being a little maid who can wander before his eyes every day, where he can see but not touch.

-

Cen Xu watches the little maid's clumsy seduction with a cold gaze.

The glimpse of her pale arm as she tends the flowers, the graceful sway of her waist as she deliberately passes in front of him, the way she chokes back tears and trembles as she calls him Young Master: all of it is rather endearing.

Cen Xu keeps her by his side, and she grows more and more temperamental. At the slightest displeasure, tears fall from her eyes. Fortunately, the little maid is easily won over and loves money more than life. She clutches a stack of banknotes, her tears not even dry, and kisses him.

While kissing him, she says how much she likes him and asks if he can take her to the Drunken Immortal Restaurant for a feast tomorrow.

Cen Xu thinks she has no ambition, but also figures that there must be at least a little genuine affection mixed in with her fake act.

But she runs away.

She disappears without a trace, taking the child in her belly with her.

At last, he finds out where the liar has been hiding.

In the warm spring curtains of the bedchamber,

Cen Xu grips her waist, finally at the end of his patience.

"The imperial decree for our marriage has been issued. Lu Yuanxi, where else do you think you can run?"

It seems she'll never learn to be obedient and docile in this lifetime.

Theme: Believe in love and courage