Ink-Stained Splendor

[Secret Crush X Ex-Chases-His-Wife-to-the-Crematorium]

When Song Yanyan was ten, her father died of illness. She and her widowed mother, the last heirs to their family's ancestral craft, moved into Prince Yan's manor to seek protection.

The first time Song Yanyan saw Xiao Jingmo, Prince Yan's heir, he was practicing swordsmanship in a bamboo grove at another residence.

The young man's presence was magnificent. He leapt into the air with his sword, and the bamboo grove rang with the sound of leaves scattering.

Song Yanyan stopped to gaze at him, and kept gazing for five years.

Out of regard for his old friendship with Song's father, Prince Yan's household treated Song Yanyan and her mother with reasonable courtesy.

Everyone, that is, except for the arrogant heir, Xiao Jingmo.

Her heart full of youthful longing, she carefully hid her feelings for Xiao Jingmo among her other thoughts.

With her exquisite hands, she cooked for him and did needlework. During the Qiqiao Festival, she sewed scented sachets for the four young masters of Prince Yan's household.

Xiao Jingmo saw the sachets in his three younger brothers' hands and was so angry he nearly ground his teeth to dust. Yet he turned to his friend and joked, "She's gone to all this trouble to secure protection."

By the time she came of age, Song Yanyan had blossomed into a stunning beauty, and suitors from all over the capital came one after another. Xiao Jingmo wore a cold expression for days, then announced that he would marry her off to a guard in the manor.

Song Yanyan was stunned. She stormed into his study to demand an explanation. Xiao Jingmo pressed her against the desk and lifted her chin, a longing he himself didn't recognize hidden in his voice:

"You spend your days scheming and scrabbling for favors, all because you want to stay in the manor. If you don't want to marry a guard, could it be that you want to become the heir's wife?"

Humiliated and furious, Song Yanyan left two rows of bright red bite marks on his wrist and gritted out two words: "Never."

A month later, Xiao Jingmo, who had avoided marriage for years, suddenly decided to choose a bride. The whole Prince Yan household buzzed with excitement.

Song Yanyan finally let go. Her youthful crush had been nothing but a dream.

Later, that once-proud heir to Prince Yan's title waited for days outside the little house where Song Yanyan was hiding, his hand turning red with cold around the family jade bangle.

But he watched as she accepted a red-lacquered brocade box from a gentle, elegant young man dressed in white...

Note: 1. One true pairing, one-on-one, happy ending. Fictional setting, no historical research needed.

2. The focus is on bittersweet romantic tension, not a face-slapping power fantasy.

[Reason for entering the "Growth and Comeback" themed writing contest] The Song family, masters of painting and gilding Buddhist statues, was once renowned throughout the land. After Song's father was murdered for being implicated in a corruption case involving the construction of a Buddhist pagoda, the young heroine, left without support, took her gravely ill mother to live at Prince Yan's manor and seek protection. The heroine is resilient and diligent. For years, she studied tirelessly through every season and mastered the art of painting and gilding Buddhist statues, finally acquiring a skill that would allow her to make a living. Later, she joins forces with the heir to Prince Yan's title to uncover the truth about her father's death and solve the corruption case, avenging her father and ridding the people of a menace. She then uses her craft to strengthen the common people's faith, making a great contribution to social stability and harmony!

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The Clouds at Her Temples Are Ready to Drift

[Rugged, unhinged emperor X pampered princess sent to marry for peace] (marriage by force X love after marriage X ex-chases-his-wife-to-the-crematorium)

At seventeen, Princess Anping Jiang Youci was forced to marry for peace, becoming the wife of Tuoba Yuanhui, ruler of the Xia Dynasty. He had once been held hostage in the Southern Dynasty for ten years, where he endured endless abuse and humiliation.

Jiang Youci had been cherished by the Southern Emperor since childhood. She feared the barbaric ruler from the rumors, whose moods were unpredictable and who killed without mercy, and dreaded his insatiable demands in their bedchamber. She thought of home every day and grew increasingly depressed.

At the New Year's Eve palace banquet, Jiang Youci offered Tuoba Yuanhui a cup of last year's wine for the first time.

But moments after drinking it, Tuoba Yuanhui's lips began to bleed, and his eyes turned red. He pinned Jiang Youci, whom he had always indulged, against the imperial seat, and said with hatred, "Do you hate me that much?! You constantly speak of your love for the people of the Southern Dynasty. If I survive today, I will one day crush your Southern Dynasty and make you feel this same heart-wrenching pain!"

On New Year's Day, Tuoba Yuanhui awoke after the poison had worn off. Jiang Youci was confined to her bedroom, where she heard every day that the ruler was leading an expedition against the Southern Dynasty.

Terrified and oppressed, utterly at a loss, she slipped out of her bedroom on the night of the Lantern Festival and stood in the palace, gazing toward the Southern Dynasty. A gust of wind swept up the dust, and she fell to her death.

Tuoba Yuanhui was shattered. He carried Jiang Youci, drenched in blood, back with him, and kept watch over her, refusing to give up.

Jiang Youci finally awoke, but had forgotten her past, as if reborn anew.

During the ten years Tuoba Yuanhui was held hostage in the Southern Dynasty, Jiang Youci was the only touch of warmth he had ever known.

He loved her, but he also resented her.

After years of enduring hardship and biding his time, he fought a war to establish his country's might and win the woman he loved.

But Jiang Youci feared him, loathed him, and even hated him.

When the New Year's Eve conspiracy was exposed, Jiang Youci awoke with amnesia. The once-cruel ruler didn't know whether to be glad or worried.

He shed the pride he had clung to, and took the Southern Dynasty's Crown Prince's junior tutor, whom Jiang Youci had admired in the past, as his model. He reshaped himself bit by bit, finally finding his way into her heart.

The people said the emperor and empress were devoted to each other, and that their harmonious marriage brought favorable weather and prosperity to the country.

But no one knew that the ruler, who made ruthless decisions in court and fought across the battlefield, was plagued by nightmares every night.

He feared that when he awoke the next day, the empress he cherished above all else would remember the hatred of her past and the man he used to be.

On another day when yellow sand filled the sky, Tuoba Yuanhui asked again and again in their bedchamber, "Today, was I the sort of man the empress could love?"

Note: One-on-one, both leads have only each other, happy ending!

Theme: Love knows no fear.