The Princess's Heart's Desire (Female-Dominated World)

[A rivalry-filled harem showdown + men who are hopelessly in love]

After the Third Princess, who had just taken a husband, chose him to enter her manor and serve her,

Xiao Ruo, a male servant, saw people of wealth and status coming and going from His Highness's study every day, and every one of them was handsome.

After a while, he began to get a sense of the personalities and habits of the people who visited most often.

For example, the princess's uncle would often use state or family affairs as an excuse to enter the room and discuss matters with her. Then the stern, restrained, proper Grand Tutor would personally lean over to firmly shut the doors and windows...

For example, the famous zither player, known throughout the capital for his cool aloofness and keeping people at a distance, seemed like a different person once he entered the study, lying across the princess's lap and begging for tenderness and love.

For example, the prince consort's older brother was the most willful of them all. Whenever he visited, he would throw a small tantrum first, then demand to be coaxed. He often made the princess rub her temples in exasperation.

Then there was how the prince consort went from an innocent young man to a notorious minister.

And how the cold-faced attendant at the princess's side carefully plotted under her nose, became the first to break free of her control, and then came right back to offer himself...

Ji Nanchuan: "Your Highness, keep me in the side courtyard and come tease me whenever you have time."

Li Jin: "Your Highness likes my brother? You don't like me?"

Li Lan: "Since you know I'm better than my younger brother in every way, why didn't you choose me back then?"

Jun He'an: "A Yuan, stop while you can."

When I heard that my uncle, Jun He'an, had finally agreed to marry the daughter of the Minister of Rites, who had loved him for a long time, I sat silently beneath the flower tree where I had first met him.

Everyone in the kingdom knew I had adored my uncle for his looks and talent since childhood. Some admired me for it; others despised me.

More people said it was the only blemish on the life of the well-loved Third Princess, but I didn't care at all.

Yes, if I love him, why should it matter whether he has a wife?

So I immediately invited my uncle out to admire the scenery. What scenery? The sight of Zhang Shinu, daughter of the Minister of Rites, passing through the street.

Don't worry! I'm not as awful as you think.

I didn't secretly arrange a massacre like I used to.

I really did just invite my uncle to watch her from afar on a balcony.

I asked my uncle if she was beautiful. He gazed steadily at the graceful young noblewoman and nodded.

In that moment, I had to admit that I was nowhere near as carefree as I'd imagined.

But I also knew that you had to give something up to gain something else.

"Uncle, it's your turn to move."

The game was mine to win, but my uncle hesitated over his move.

"Can a marriage be decided after just one meeting?"

He was asking about my petition to select the young son of the Minister of Revenue as my prince consort.

I pointed to the board and reminded him, "If you place your piece here, Uncle, you'll win."

But he put the piece back in the bowl and said, "I've made things clear to Zhang Shinu, and both our families have agreed to end the engagement. So... could you put your own marriage on hold for a little while, too?"

I frowned. "No. This game should have ended long ago. You have to marry Zhang Shinu, Uncle."

That sour, pedantic Minister of Rites had been standing in my way at court for a long time. If my uncle married his only daughter, it would surely be of some help to me.

Everyone saw how I never bothered to hide my gaze lingering on my own uncle. But they didn't know that the proper, dignified man who taught the princes poetry and the principles of statecraft would quietly send me glances during the day, only to let me take everything he had from him again and again at night.

And I would take the young son of the Minister of Revenue, an inexperienced boy who would be easy to control, as my prince consort.

That way, I'd have the capital and the court firmly in my grasp, and there'd be no way I'd lose to my second sister.

I reached over and picked up the black piece in front of him, about to win the game for him.

At last, Jun He'an couldn't hold back. He swept his hand across the board, scattering the pieces, and asked in alarm, "Then what am I to you? This isn't what you promised me back then!"

We're playing chess. Why bring love into it?

I leaned across the board between us and kissed his earlobe, whispering seductively, "I'll always love you, Uncle. But first, you have to help me win this game."

All female characters are women, all male characters are virgins.

Uncle Jun He'an was the late emperor's adopted son and is not related to the female lead by blood.

The setting is entirely fictional, so don't read too much into it.

Synopsis finalized and archived on February 6, 2025.

Theme: Treat others with reason and fairness