(The male lead first appears in Chapter 8 and starts appearing regularly from Chapter 14. Ahem.)
Career-minded heroine vs. hopelessly lovesick hero
Throughout her life, Xu Huanyan has been someone everyone loves to hate.
Everyone despises her, curses her, and wants nothing more than to tear her apart and drink her blood.
It's simply because she has a foul temper and a stubborn streak, and is the most unconventional girl around.
People say that a girl as headstrong as her will never find a husband.
She pays them no mind and walks away.
People say that a woman's place is at home, serving her husband and raising children. How can she go out in public like this? It's utterly disgraceful.
She fires back without mercy.
She rejects the rules of propriety and is far too unruly. She should have starved to death, but her kind-hearted master took her in.
For five years.
Her master is gentle by nature and has never raised her voice at anyone.
For five years at Pinzhen House, she taught Xu Huanyan to read and gave her practical skills, praising her as supremely talented and exceptionally clever. She is the best master in the world.
Xu Huanyan once thought her master was the perfect woman in the eyes of the world.
Kind, docile, and always keeping to herself.
Only that day did she learn that her master was, in fact, the most unconventional woman in the world.
And Xu Huanyan had learned all her ways.
She disregarded every social convention. All she knew was that Yulou, on the brink of closing because of its troubles, needed her. Yulou, short on money and buried in debt, needed her too...
She ignored everyone's fury. Even with a sullied reputation, she never backed down.
So she thought that Yulou would always stand behind her, no matter what.
But then Yulou abandoned her?
In the end, the world could not tolerate a girl as unconventional as her.
She was sent to the executioner's block.
The crowd cursed and beat her.
She never expected one person to be different.
He was usually flippant, never saying a kind word. But today, as if he were a different man, he spoke with rare seriousness:
"Don't worry. I won't let you die!"
"No matter what, I'll save you."
-
Pei Jiangyao was a good-for-nothing who idled his days away and never applied himself to learning. He usually spent money like water, throwing away fortunes on fine silks and precious jade. A true spendthrift.
His father called him "a piece of rotten wood that can never be carved," and in a fit of anger sent him to remote Weinan, where he wouldn't have to lay eyes on him.
Pei Jiangyao was happy to leave the capital and enjoy his freedom. Besides, Weinan's Haisheng was famous for its jade.
On the day he first arrived in Weinan, he was out with a friend. They were still at the end of the street when he heard a woman shout angrily.
He looked toward the sound and saw her in the middle of the street. Pei Jiangyao froze. He was used to girls who followed the rules and spoke softly, so when he suddenly saw someone who paid no heed to propriety, he couldn't help stopping to watch.
He never imagined that this one pause would last a lifetime.
PS:
1. Both leads are each other's first and only, and this is a happy ending. The male lead appears rather late (whispering: really quite late).
2. The heroine is fond of someone else early on, and only later realizes she has fallen for the male lead.
3. This is a fictional setting with plenty of original worldbuilding. The professional knowledge about jade carving and its designs comes from the internet, so please don't scrutinize it too closely.
Theme: Women, too, can soar like the great roc.
