A Tender Gaze

Jiang Shuang'er is a concubine-born daughter. Her mother resorted to dishonorable means to give birth to her, making her life especially difficult.

Whenever anyone mentions her, the people of the Jiang household think only of a timid, fawning, nearly invisible girl.

At a spring banquet one year, her sisters tricked her into entering the chamber of the Duke of Zhenguo's legitimate son.

The duke's son, Xie Cong, was as exquisite as a work of art and peerlessly handsome, but his temperament was severe. He showed women no courtesy, and even the princess couldn't get so much as a kind word from him.

The Jiang sisters were thrilled, waiting to see Xie Cong fly into a rage and throw Jiang Shuang'er out.

Meanwhile, inside the room.

Jiang Shuang'er knelt on the floor, her slender shoulders trembling.

Xie Cong gripped her chin with one hand, forcing the girl to look up.

He stroked the soft skin beneath her chin with his thumb, gazed into her soulful eyes, and curled his lips into a smile.

"A Yan, this time, you came to me of your own accord."

Xie Cong was frail as a child. In his youth, he spent five years cultivating at a mountain temple in Jiangnan.

The days of practice were grueling. To strengthen his body, he had to climb Mount Tianjue every day.

But he gritted his teeth and kept at it.

Because when he reached the summit, there would be a rosy-cheeked girl waiting to smile at him and sweetly call, "Big Brother!"

Xie Cong always thought he was special, until he discovered that the girl had one, two, three, four other "big brothers."

He was fifth in line.

Theme: Don't give up hope in love.