The Envoy

[This novel enters VIP on April 3 at noon, with three updates that day]

[Tsarist Russia & the Great Qing (a Chinese-Russian couple); the Qing envoy's hairstyle is an author's invention. Let me say it again: he does not have a bald head with a queue!]

[Happy Ending]

It's "an innocent yet sly little white rabbit & an irritable but clueless big brown bear."

It's also "a Jiangnan beauty & a wild Russian."

The beauty is beautiful in appearance, while the wild man is wild in temperament. Konstantin is handsome, but huge. His mother died when he was young, and his grandmother raised him herself. Konstantin: "Grandma, I'm full." Grandma: "No, you're not." She force-fed him milk until he grew to over two meters tall. Thanks to his physique, he joined the closest circle of guards around the Empress before inheriting his title. When the envoy who had traveled so far laid eyes on him, he couldn't help exclaiming, "Is that some kind of wild man?"

Backstory:

Before the Qianlong era, a wealthy man surnamed Shen in Jinling commissioned a painter to paint his late wife in her memory. She had been renowned for her beauty, but without a reference it was difficult to capture her features and spirit. As the painter pondered the problem, the man's son emerged from the study. The painter was astonished by the youth's extraordinary, almost heavenly beauty. Why not dress him in his mother's clothes and have him pose in her place?

So Shen Cong, at fifteen, was painted with his hair in a cloud-shaped bun, wearing his mother's long dress and seated among pink peonies, his eyes smiling and his face radiant.

After finishing the portrait, the painter reflected on the beauty of the person in it and made a copy. Who knows how many years passed before the painter fell into poverty and sold the painting. After passing through who knows how many hands, it eventually arrived in distant Saint Petersburg.

Prince Golitsyn was captivated by the painting's Oriental beauty and hung it in the most prominent spot in his estate's banquet hall.

But his younger son, Konstantin, a guardsman in the service of Empress Catherine the Great and heir to the title of prince, stood beneath the portrait, swirling his wineglass, and said, "A beauty like this shouldn't be left for everyone to admire."

"Then where would you like it hung?" the maid asked.

"In my bedroom, of course."

Years later, when the envoy arrived, the young prince nearly fell over at the welcoming banquet and stammered,

"A b-beauty?"

In the young prince's bedroom, the envoy froze when he saw his own portrait displayed directly opposite the bed. Astonished, he said, "Are you... a pervert?"

"Reading Guide:

* A size difference. Konstantin is the gong and has Cossack ancestry. Though a nobleman, he is very wild.

* Shen Cong wears his hair in a braid; the hairstyle is an author's invention.

* A bickering couple whose feelings are still innocent and uncertain.

* Cultural differences, with oil painting elements.

This isn't historically researched. I'm just writing for fun. Names and language will be simplified to make it easier to read, so don't worry.

Next novel: Shattered Glass

Theme: Uphold peace, let friendship last forever, and grow together through setbacks and love.