[Silver-tongued, two-faced princess vs. seemingly gentle but secretly cunning strategist]
Ji Rui is the only daughter of the Earl of the West. She learned divination as a child and quickly became famous for it.
At the time, a tyrant ruled the land, imposing harsh punishments and heavy taxes. Everyone thought she would use her mysterious skills to advise the king and save the people, but Ji Rui intended to help her father become king.
One day, she cast a divination for her father: if the ruler of Xiqi wished to become king, he would need four worthy ministers to support him.
She soon found those four men. Only one, named Nangong Zi, refused to cooperate.
Ji Rui tried to win him over with wealth, then with her own charms, but the young man remained unmoved. With no other choice, she claimed he was the bearer of the Humility hexagram, and that unless he chose a worthy lord to serve, he would meet a bad end.
At her words, he seemed afraid and obediently agreed to become her father's adviser.
But she soon discovered that although Nangong Zi was handsome, he was also naturally crafty and perceptive. Worse, he insisted on putting on the air of a noble, upright gentleman, winning the hearts of countless noblewomen in Xiqi, who repeatedly tried to seduce him.
What a sanctimonious hypocrite...
Determined to keep him around, she fussed over him every day, brought him soup at night, and danced for him up close, but he remained completely unmoved.
*
Years later, the Earl of the West was imprisoned in Youli. Ji Rui planned to go alone to Zhaoge to negotiate, but the hypocrite insisted on going with her.
The road ahead was treacherous, and their survival uncertain. Along the way, the hypocrite was gravely wounded, and then his father died.
Overcome with grief, Ji Rui couldn't help feeling moved. She solemnly told him, "If you wish, I can be your family. From now on, we can be as close as siblings, like the flowering cherry trees."
That day, he gazed at her for a long time, his eyes dark and inscrutable.
*
Times changed, and the stars turned.
The Shang dynasty fell, and Xiqi rose.
Nangong Zi followed the new king of Xiqi as he conquered new territories, becoming one of the most powerful founding generals of the Zhou state.
One day, after a sacrificial ceremony, the hypocrite brazenly pinned her down on the altar table, gazing at her with deep affection as he muttered, "I want to dance a close-contact dance with the princess."
Even knowing he had been drinking, Ji Rui couldn't help panicking. She snapped at him,
"Nangong Shi! Aren't we... family?!"
The hypocrite gently stroked her raven hair and gave her a playful "Hmm." "A wife is family too."
Reader's Guide:
1. One-on-one romance, happy ending, fictional setting at the end of the Shang and beginning of the Zhou.
2. The female lead is fictional. The historical King Wen of Zhou had no daughter. The male lead is named Nangong Shi (kuo, fourth tone).
3. The female lead is a hypocrite with ambition, and her family is her only weakness. She is completely different from the female lead in Jian'an Fantasy.
4. This is not a derivative work. Some characters differ considerably from their historical counterparts, so readers who insist on historical accuracy may want to skip it.
Theme: Sharing hardship with one's family
