Lanterns and Make-Believe

1.

Jiang Jinwu had been crown prince since birth, and was the first crown prince in the dynasty's history to be deposed and later reinstated.

He was deposed for ten years, and spent all ten of them as a Daoist priest.

He thought he would be a priest for the rest of his life. Then one day, a fellow with a belly full of schemes, dressed like an utterly harmless scholar, climbed the bodhi tree outside his courtyard, happened to fall out of it, and landed right in front of him.

Jiang Jinwu only remembered how good-looking he was. He was so beautiful that even a deposed crown prince who had spent ten years cultivating detachment would have to describe his face as dazzlingly alluring.

Later, that same man asked him with quiet certainty, "Your Highness, are you truly content to waste away the rest of your life beneath a green lamp?"

Well. He wasn't.

2.

On the day Xie Zhaoye resigned after taking his revenge and left the capital, Jiang Jinwu heard that he had waited at the city gate for two hours, leading his horse by the reins, but the person he hoped to see never came.

Jiang Jinwu thought he and that scoundrel would never meet again, but a year after leaving the capital, the man broke into the Eastern Palace in the middle of the night.

Xie Zhaoye said, "Your Highness, I've missed you. I've missed you so much."

But Jiang Jinwu thought: He's lying again.

Xie Zhaoye really was awful. He was calculating, always ten steps ahead, and loved to lie. Yet he had a face so handsome it made people lower their guard. He could fleece someone and still have them regard him as a close friend. Even after getting swindled, they'd tearfully insist it wasn't Lord Xie's fault!

Jiang Jinwu wasn't about to believe a word that rolled off his tongue.

3.

Jiang Jinwu died two years after Xie Zhaoye resigned.

At the time, Xie Zhaoye was enjoying himself in Jiangnan, convinced that he was silently sulking at the precious crown prince back in the Eastern Palace.

Only later did he learn that what he thought was sulking, Jiang Jinwu had taken for a final farewell.

Later still, he was reborn at the end of the first year after resigning.

The heart of this story: #AnyoneWhoTrustsXieZhaoyeIsADog!##WhatDoYouDoWhenYouHaveA mouthButNoOneBelievesYou#

* Younger top, six-year age gap, top is reborn.

* Bottom: I can dote on you and indulge you, but I won't believe a word you say!

Top: Nine parts lies, one part truth. I'll deceive you until you cry, but I really do love you!

* The top is bad in the ordinary sense of the word. He has his own rules for survival. Whether he changes depends on the circumstances.

* Fictional setting, a hodgepodge of official systems, not modeled on any particular dynasty. Just a sweet story about mutual devotion.

[The next book is Can a Vampire Take the Underworld Civil Service Exam? If you're interested, check out the blurb in my author page!]

Theme: Love your partner, yourself, and the world.