Jade Pendants Clinking

The main story is complete. Extra chapters are being updated slowly.

Face-swapping trope | Sweet, spoiled princess who's innocent on the surface but dark underneath x gentle young lord who's strong yet tragic

Yan Jue, young lord of the Yan household, comes from a distinguished family and is as refined as jade.

He is steady and cautious by nature, yet in the second year of Jingtian, outside Yaocheng, he abducts a little princess sent by Yan Si to marry for an alliance, at the request of a friend.

Having lived deep in the palace, she knows little of the world and is at her most innocent and adorable.

Yan Jue lost his parents when he was young, and comes to regard the pampered princess as his own sister, caring for her in every way on their journey.

The little princess is beautiful as snow and flowers, yet accustomed to throwing her weight around. All it takes is a faint curve of his lips for her to casually peel away his assumed mask. Then she tilts her head up obediently and asks softly, "You're not the young lord of the Yan household."

"Who are you, then?"

He lowers his eyes without answering, concealing the malice rising ever more fiercely in his heart.

She loves hibiscus flowers most, and imperiously orders him to plant them all over the courtyard himself.

She keeps the hibiscus he gives her in her scented sachet. When the flowers wither, even her thousand-gold cloak is stuffed full of their seeds.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, the princess looks breathtaking beneath the moon.

The infatuation in her eyes after she gets drunk seems genuine, and he believes this must be deep, devoted love.

She smiles and strokes his face with her fingertips. He removes his mask and tells her everything about his dark past.

One kiss is all it takes for years of pain to seem to vanish overnight.

As war breaks out everywhere, he hastily makes arrangements for his people and returns to the capital to see her.

He leaps down from the eaves and lands outside her window, only to hear the princess's soft, tender voice gently reassuring her older brother:

"Don't worry, Brother."

"I only like his face."

The birds are gone, and everything that did not belong to him has been taken away.

In a filthy prison like a mire, moonlight silver as frost shines through the small window onto the branches outside.

He has nothing, yet the stars above still draw a little sparrow to him.

His throat, unused to speaking for so long, is nearly too hoarse to make a sound. Yet a slender, delicate hand hurriedly helps him up, touching his scarred face without the slightest hesitation.

"Brother, I haven't finished planting my hibiscus."

"Don't hurt him."

One-on-one romance, both leads have had no prior partners, happy ending.

Reading Guide:

1. Jue is a kind of jade carved into a broken ring shape.

2. Because of their ages, the leads will not be together before the heroine comes of age. They are a perfect match, destined for each other, and love only one another from beginning to end.

3. This novel contains a little elementary-school-level political scheming. It's mainly about two kids falling in love, so just enjoy it.

4. He will not be disfigured. They will get their own faces back later.

5. The setting is fictional, with plenty of made-up details. All unusual phenomena are caused by extraordinary martial arts.

(A little preview of another forthcoming novel)

My Husband Fell Apart After I Became a God

After successfully saving the 9,999th miniature world, Yan Xingnan and her partner, Xuan Jun, finally gather enough faith points to exchange for the gold-tier prize, limited to one per customer, in the System shop: a divine spark.

After completing the exchange, the newly ascended goddess Yan Xingnan opens her eyes, only to find herself back in her original world.

The good news: Her divine spark and power are still there.

The bad news: Her partner and husband is gone.

Now, Yan Xingnan is a lone orphan with no family, married into the Imperial Preceptor's household because of a past favor.

After waking up one morning, she encounters several strange men. Perhaps it's a side effect of becoming a god, but her memory grows worse by the day. Each of them looks like they might be Xuan Jun:

One is her betrothed from her original world, the youngest top scholar in the court and an untouchable flower on a high mountain. Though married to her, he ignores her, and his name seems a little like Xuan Jun's.

One is a mad martial artist with eight-pack abs, a shameless womanizer with a wild streak who turns unexpectedly shy when teased. The flying-swallow mark on his chest is identical to Xuan Jun's.

One is a down-and-out young prince who studies immortal arts under an immortal. Beautiful, lonely, delicate, and pitiable, he somehow guesses her childhood name without being told and always murmurs "Xianchun" when they embrace.

Even the emotionless System, which follows the rule that the Host's life comes first, takes on the stubborn appearance of a young man and helps her count them off:

This one's much too cold and heartless, so it can't be him. This one is always making unreasonable demands, so it can't be him. This one is rude and crude, and clearly doesn't know how to care for anyone, so it can't be him...

Wait, which husband of mine did I lose?

In the spring of the fourth year of Jingzhang, Yan Xingnan marries into the Left Chancellor's residence.

On her wedding night, she curls up beside the bridal bed and has a long, vivid dream in the candlelight.

She dreams that she was chosen as a task-taker, taking the alias "Xianchun" and traveling endlessly through three thousand worlds, setting right the course of each world that had been turned upside down.

A man is always by her side, shielding her from trouble and sharing life and death with her.

In the turbulent, chaotic flow of time and space, the man holding her tightly trembles as he uses every last ounce of strength to send her somewhere safe. He leaves a soft kiss behind her ear and quietly says goodbye:

"I'm leaving, Xianchun."

"If there's another life, come find me soon."

After traveling through the three thousand worlds for countless years, Yan Xingnan opens her eyes and returns to the end of spring in the fourth year of Jingzhang.

She sees the man push open the door, standing against the light, his face blurred.

She hurries toward him in delight and softly calls:

"...Xuan Jun?"

Theme: Clarity within and without