Long Life and Lasting Joy

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[Hot-tempered princess × illiterate prince × timid strategist]

Watch as the three of them struggle their way through life and turn the turbulent court upside down.

*

Have you ever, even for a moment, reconsidered everything you thought you knew?

When Li Changle was a spoiled young noble in the capital, she never thought that the people of Shangyang were living in dire misery.

As far as she was concerned, life beyond the capital was probably much the same as life within it. People might not be rich and powerful, but they could still have enough to eat and wear, and live out their lives in peace.

That was, until she went to Jiannan.

The students who should have been reaching for the stars and moon, dreaming of lofty ambitions and speaking freely with brilliant minds, were tossed into the dungeon like dead dogs.

It was the first time Li Changle felt that human life was as worthless as grass.

In the eyes of those greedy power-seekers, the lives of ordinary people meant nothing at all.

On the road to Maiden Village, Song Yannian once asked her a question:

If we can't change anything, then what exactly are we trying to save?

Li Changle didn't know how to answer.

She was just as lost back then. Her confidence had been chipped away, bit by bit, and the blind innocence she'd had in the capital was long gone.

Luckily, in the end, it was Xu Leyan who gave them an answer.

The moment the flames rose, it seemed as if they were consuming all the filth and decay here. Xu Leyan stood before the thick black smoke and, with an optimism that wasn't his own, gave the two of them an answer.

“Hope and the future.”

*

As royals who were loved and indulged without limit, Li Changle, Song Yannian, and Xu Leyan could have been perfectly content to spend their lives having fun and bickering with one another.

But in the early years of the kingdom, difficulties lay everywhere, both within and beyond the court. The old aristocratic families, spies from other countries, and ministers stirring up trouble for their own gain all hindered Shangyang's development.

Pushed into the game by those with hidden agendas, the trio found that the little flaws their elders had once indulged had become obstacles in their way as soon as they entered the fray.

When they discovered the vast gap between their ideals and reality, would they go with the flow or stay true to themselves? Would their friendship come to an end as they continued to grow?

[Bonus scene] The silly version:

On a dark and windy night, three figures crept toward a mass grave.

Xu Leyan crouched trembling beside a corpse, clutching his gear.

“Do we really have to do this?”

Song Yannian crouched beside him and patted his shoulder reassuringly. “This is a necessary step on your path to becoming an official. I'm here with you, brother. What wandering ghost would dare cause trouble?”

Realizing there was no way to get out of it, Xu Leyan took out his bedding, spread it beside the nameless corpse, and darted under the covers. Li Changle immediately dragged him back out.

“What is wrong with you two? This is the courage-building method you spent all afternoon coming up with?”

“It's a brilliant method!” Song Yannian retorted, his neck stiff with defiance. “Then what better way do you have?”

“Please.” Li Changle gave a contemptuous snort. “Of course I do. Anything would be better than your terrible idea!”

With that, Li Changle grabbed Xu Leyan by the head and pointed him at the corpse, which was so rotten it was impossible to tell whether it had been a man or a woman. In a soft voice, she said, “Come on, do what I say. Give it a kiss.”

At that, Xu Leyan frantically shook off Li Changle's hand, jumped to his feet, and ran. He disappeared into the night without looking back.

“Your idea wasn't any better. He ran off,” Song Yannian said, rising to dust off his clothes. Then he suddenly let his hair down and draped it over his face.

“Since he's already run off, why don't we dress up as ghosts and scare him? We came all this way. We can't let him leave without getting anything out of it!”

Li Changle immediately agreed.

Xu Leyan, after his “wonderful” night: If you two want me dead, just say so next time!!!

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When an Infinite Trial Game Invades a World of Spiritual Energy

In a cold, damp dungeon, a strangely dressed man was bound by icy shackles and suspended above a bed of thorns.

Fu Songying tapped her fingertips together, pondering his intentions.

The watchers of the Void Abyss had noticed something was wrong long ago. For fifty years, the spiritual energy in the Continent of Zhuyun had been steadily declining, and many of the magical artifacts the Void Abyss had sent into the mortal world had mysteriously disappeared.

It wasn't until ten years ago, when the defensive artifact protecting the Continent of Zhuyun vanished before their eyes, that the elders realized something was amiss.

It seemed that the Continent of Zhuyun had been invaded by a force beyond their understanding, a force that did not belong to their world.

After the artifacts disappeared, supernatural incidents began happening frequently in the mortal world. But by the time people were sent to deal with them, the incidents had already been mysteriously resolved. Just like the missing artifacts, all the spiritual energy in the areas where the incidents took place had vanished. No matter how much spiritual power the elders poured into those areas, nothing worked.

The spiritual power simply drifted away, beyond the boundaries of that space.

It was as if some strange force had separated that place from the Continent of Zhuyun.

For ten years, Fu Songying and the elders had been unable to make sense of it. Then, while Fu Songying was investigating related clues in the mortal world, the man before her suddenly appeared at her location with a team.

Fu Songying concealed her spiritual power and posed as a villager, carefully observing the strangely dressed group. She witnessed with her own eyes the entire process, from their escape to their resolution of the supernatural incident.

Just as they were about to disappear, Fu Songying seized the man and brought him back.

No matter how much her people interrogated him, the man they called their captain remained silent.

Fu Songying had a strange feeling that it wasn't that he didn't want to speak. He simply couldn't.

“In that case, let me ask you something else. Where are you from?”

The man before her furrowed his brow and hesitated for a long time before finally answering, “I come from... Earth.”

Theme: Resist fate