How to Keep Lord Chu from Wanting to Kill Me

Unworldly little maniac x cool, aloof, and dangerously charming man who always has her back

Both are each other’s first love, childhood sweethearts, and each other’s only one; he has been plotting for years, and his secret love finally comes true. Happy ending.

[Blurb withdrawn]

Chu Yanqing was ten when she first met Jiang Yi.

The vast General’s Residence was surrounded by wolves, and only this sickly child remained. As rain fell through the night, Chu Yanqing thought she glimpsed a fledgling eagle on the verge of falling.

But later, when they both entered Tianqi and became classmates, Chu Yanqing realized she had been wrong. Jiang Yi was clearly a reckless little maniac.

A maniac who, convinced she wouldn’t live much longer, didn’t treat her own life as something worth protecting.

*

Jiang Yi was born into the residence of the Swift Cavalry General. She entered Tianqi Academy at thirteen and attained fourth-rank office at seventeen. Born into a distinguished family, she had ranked first in the official examinations year after year.

In those years, the light surrounding Jiang Yi shone brighter than the full moon.

Until the secret edict arrived.

The Emperor Zhengde wanted her to investigate the truth behind Grand Commandant Chu’s death.

Grand Commandant Chu, Chu Yanqing’s father, was said to have died in Qingzhou while investigating a case eight years ago. That case had haunted Chu Yanqing for more than a decade.

Jiang Yi thought that at last, she could save him.

But in the end, the truth that the Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review uncovered by every means available was that the Swift Cavalry General had killed Grand Commandant Chu on the border of Qingzhou.

The Swift Cavalry General was her father.

Then came a great fire, along with the truth. From that day on, Assistant Minister Jiang resigned and left the capital, vanishing without a trace in Shangjing.

That same year, when the first snow fell in Qingzhou, Jiang Yi’s plan went awry.

When Chu Yanqing arrived, he saw her lying in the frozen river, utterly still.

In the forty-fourth year of the ancient Tian era under Emperor Zhengde, the Crown Prince raised an army, and the realm fell into chaos.

*

For the final step of her plan, Jiang Yi accepted the imperial edict that would cost her life right in front of Chu Yanqing. She was ready to spend her final three days in prison, eating and drinking well. But on the first night, an unexpected guest came to the Imperial Prison.

He slept beside her on the pile of dry grass all night, looking nothing like his usual dignified, distant self. He seemed so pitiful that Jiang Yi’s kind heart prompted her to hug him.

-

At sunrise, he put a marriage contract and a longevity lock in the food box sent to her.

[Bonus Scene]

“Have you ever heard of imprinting, Magistrate Jiang?”

The day he saw Jiang Yi again, he asked her a question that seemed to mean one thing and another.

“Of course.”

Confusion flickered in her clear, bright eyes, as if she wondered why he would ask such a question.

Just as he expected.

Chu Yanqing gazed at her, his eyes fixed intently on hers. He never looked away, watching her with utmost seriousness.

“Then, Magistrate Jiang, do you know that bonds this powerful can overwhelm not only animals, but people too?”

His voice was calm and even, carrying a quiet earnestness, restrained yet threaded with an unmistakable stubbornness.

“What do you mean?” The young woman froze.

When I met you, I waited for mountains to rise, for snow to melt, for all things under heaven to return to their beginning, and for the ceaseless flow of water.

From the first time I saw you, I no longer feared spring.

//

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