The Little Plum Blossom Is Hard to Handle

[My neighboring story, Bewitching Immortal, is now underway~]

I revise the story from time to time. I won't be responsible for pirated copies, and if you read pirated copies, don't leave comments for me. Let's respect each other. Thank you to everyone who supports the official version!

Lively, emotionally clueless young princess x Scheming, devoted, loyal crown prince

Zhu Yunchi has always hated Xie Xingzhao, from childhood to adulthood.

He tricked her, made her fall out of a tree, stole her rabbit lantern, and tampered with her ink so the exam paper she handed in was completely blank.

Zhu Yunchi wished she would never see him again, but she had to see him right in front of her every day.

On their wedding night, the dragon-and-phoenix candles burned without going out, their dim light reflected through the red bed curtains.

Suddenly, warmth pressed against Zhu Yunchi from behind. She heard her sworn enemy whisper in her ear:

"At last, the day I've been waiting for has come."

Zhu Yunchi could only stay on guard against Xie Xingzhao day after day, waiting to divorce him six months later.

But Xie Xingzhao changed.

For a few brief moments, she thought that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to live like this.

Until the day he deftly tore up the divorce papers she handed him and smiled.

"That's right. I've never once intended to divorce you."

*

Everyone said the Crown Prince and his wife had been at odds for over a decade, but after marriage they were inseparable. Clearly, they were destined to be bound together.

But no one else knew that this so-called destined match was something he'd painstakingly schemed to obtain.

When he was young, he thought the new little girl was as cute as snow and jade, and couldn't help wanting to tease her.

But he never imagined she'd become the bitter fruit of his own making.

1. Childhood sweethearts + married first, love later; childish squabbling.

2. One couple, both physically and emotionally devoted only to each other.

3. The heroine is a little slow to recognize her feelings. Please don't read if that bothers you.

4. The hero falls for her first. Early on, he can't judge the right boundaries while trying to get her attention. He didn't tamper with her exam paper. Please don't read if that bothers you.

5. A light, sweet romance with little plot.

---------Below is the blurb for the pre-release story She Doesn't Want to Chase Him Anymore

The lofty beauty falls from her pedestal | A man who must suffer to win back his wife

Ji Shuran always gave up halfway through, except when it came to pursuing Xu Yanheng, whom she'd chased for years.

She gave him her whole heart, full of passion,

but all she ever got was his cold rejection: "I have no feelings for you, and I don't want to get involved with you."

On the Lantern Festival night, she brought him two lanterns, brimming with hope.

"Brother Aheng, would you come see the lantern festival with me?"

He gave her a casual glance and replied coldly, "I have something to do later."

At the lantern festival, amid the dazzling lights, Ji Shuran saw Xu Yanheng standing beside a woman.

They were talking and laughing. His handsome face, usually so expressionless, was lit with a smile he'd never shown her.

At last, Ji Shuran didn't want to chase him anymore.

But by chance, she drank an aphrodisiac powder and ended up intimately entangled with a noble young gentleman who had always kept himself pure.

After the storm of passion, his voice hoarse but his manner unusually solemn, he said, "I'll ask Teacher for your hand in marriage."

Ji Shuran coldly refused. "There's no need. Let's pretend yesterday never happened. Thank you, Lord Xu, for helping me find the antidote."

-

Xu Yanheng was wholly focused on navigating the official world. He thought love clouded the mind and despised those who used their connections to climb the ranks. That was why he kept his teacher's daughter, Ji Shuran, at a distance.

Lately, however, he kept losing focus.

The girl who had always found ways to appear before him, who had been passionately entangled with him that night, had suddenly put distance between them. If she saw him from afar, she took another route.

If she had no way to avoid him, she reluctantly called him:

"Lord Xu."

At a flower-viewing banquet, he watched Ji Shuran chatting and drinking with the son of the Minister of Revenue. Afterward, they left together and arranged to go admire the flowers.

They had clearly been intimate, lying together in each other's arms. How could she still have her heart set on another man?

For the first time, Xu Yanheng tasted the bitterness of jealousy.

When she deliberately kept him at arm's length, he finally couldn't take it and cornered her behind a flower wall.

Her eyes showed surprise and confusion, but not a trace of the affection she'd once felt for him.

He gripped her hand tightly, his eyes roiling with dark clouds. "Yanyan, call me what you used to."

But she said, "Lord Xu, I don't think we're close."

He gave a cold laugh and pressed her more firmly against the wall, his voice low and coercive:

"Is that so? But that night, you kept calling me 'Brother Aheng.'"

*The secondary female character in the blurb is the hero's cousin.

*One couple, both virtuous and devoted only to each other.

Theme: We live together in Changgan Lane, childhood companions without a trace of awkwardness.