The pampered princess of the Northern Frontier royal court x the sharp-tongued, soft-hearted uncle who seems cold
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Jiang Fuli was a princess of the Northern Frontier grasslands, but she had been raised in the Central Plains capital of Lidu since childhood.
When she was seventeen, civil strife broke out in the Northern Frontier. To settle the clan disputes, the Chanyu bestowed Jiang Fuli upon the Right Grand General as his wife.
Jiang Fuli had no choice but to return to the Northern Frontier to marry.
The lands around the Northern Frontier royal court were all desert.
She had gone back a few times as a child. The sandstorms had blotted out the sky, the sun had been scorching, the food and clothes had been terrible, and even her sleep had been plagued by nightmares.
And now she was supposed to marry some barbaric brute.
Jiang Fuli cried, made a scene, and flatly refused to go back.
After much deliberation, the Chanyu had no choice but to send Xie Xiuyan to fetch her in person.
Xie Xiuyan:
The Right Wise King of the Northern Frontier, and the Chanyu's adopted younger brother.
He fought wolf packs at six, broke enemy formations and killed foes at ten, and put down countless wars in the Northern Frontier without ever losing. He was a divine general who had fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
He was also the person Jiang Fuli feared most.
Jiang Fuli had seen Xie Xiuyan once as a child.
That day, his long hair was tied high and stained scarlet. His silver armor was drenched in blood, and he rode into the city carrying two human heads. The wind whipped up the sand, bringing with it the stench of blood.
After that, all her nightmares featured his blood-spattered face.
*
Xie Xiuyan had rarely seen Jiang Fuli. She had been sent to the Central Plains at the age of two, and over the next fifteen years, he saw her only three times.
He had only the barest impression of his little niece.
Timid, troublesome, and spoiled.
From the very first day of the journey, he searched everywhere for water so she could bathe, and found her hair balm and scented lotion. Her food had to look, smell, and taste good, and couldn't be overcooked. Her clothes had to be as light as cicada wings and not irritate her skin. Even when she slept, he had to stand guard outside her carriage and swat mosquitoes, all while listening to her endless complaints and grievances.
The entire convoy was in an uproar from top to bottom.
Until one night, Jiang Fuli called him into the carriage where he stood guard outside.
Dark circles shadowed her eyes. Red welts from insect bites covered her arms and neck. The princess, who had always cared about her appearance, now had a mess of tangled hair and gazed at him pitifully.
"Uncle Xiuyan, I don't want to get married. Take me away."
"The weather here is so awful. My hair and skin are all dried out! I can't eat or sleep properly, and there are bugs biting me everywhere. This place isn't fit for human habitation. I'm about to go crazy!"
The dark circles under Xie Xiuyan's eyes were even worse than hers. After years of campaigning and fighting, this was the first time he had felt physically and mentally exhausted.
His face darkened. "...Who's torturing whom, exactly?"
Later, the convoy noticed that the princess, who had once been terribly afraid of Xie Xiuyan, seemed to be getting along better and better with him.
As Jiang Fuli barged into Xie Xiuyan's carriage to complain for the umpteenth time:
"Uncle Xiuyan, take me away! I'm really about to break down! I've even got pimples on my face! If I have to live like this every day after returning to the Northern Frontier, I might as well just die!"
Xie Xiuyan pushed her back when she leaned toward him. He frowned and studied her for a long moment before letting out a soft sigh. "...Children shouldn't keep talking about dying."
-
Later still, the young woman rested her head on the man's lap as he stroked her long hair. Her voice was exceedingly gentle. "Uncle Xiuyan, if I absolutely have to marry..."
She pressed her face into his palm.
"Kill the Right Grand General, and let me marry you instead, okay?"
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[Important Notes]
* The female lead is 17 and the male lead is 26, a nine-year age gap.
* The female lead is extremely spoiled and a little unreasonable, but only with the male lead.
* The male lead naturally has a grumpy face and looks cold, but is actually incredibly doting.
* The female lead has exotic features and mixed Han Chinese ancestry. The male lead is pure Han Chinese.
2024.7.30
Theme: An uncle is an uncle. He can't become a lover.
