After Hooking the Crown Prince, She Deleted Her Account and Ran

In the third year of Tianlu, a Mid-Autumn banquet shattered a century of peace in the Southern Liang dynasty. First, the Imperial Jade Seal was damaged. Then the Crown Prince, Mu Xuanlan, had his household confiscated and was exiled three thousand li away.

Just then, tavern owner Qin Qianqian went out on a business trip and traveled with Bai Shaohe, the son of a merchant she happened to meet. As they spent day and night together, she began to notice something odd. Hey! Where did that overwhelming aura of a ruler come from?

As they traveled together, they secretly fell for each other, but in the end they turned against one another. Mu Xuanlan used Qin Qianqian to find Jiang Qianqiu, the master of Fangcao Pavilion, who might know the secret of immortality. As soon as he got his answer, he rushed back to the capital to report, even bringing the Imperial Guards to seal off Jiang Qianqiu's base, the very tavern managed by Qin Qianqian.

Rumor had it that the secret letter Crown Prince Mu Xuanlan sent to the emperor read: "Clearwind Tavern has only clear winds. Kill everyone and seal the place."

After three years of wind and snow, the new emperor ascended the throne. The first thing he did was tear down the seals on Clearwind Tavern. Qin Qianqian, far away in Fengling, heard the news and personally prepared a pot of the tavern's signature wine to await an old friend.

The night before Mu Xuanlan was due to attend the enthronement ceremony, he appeared thousands of li away.

"So the emperor didn't have me killed enough three years ago. Now he's come to take my life himself!"

"Do you know that I've been unable to sleep peacefully since three years ago? And what I said back then was: if the person is gone, the heart is empty too."

After clearing up their misunderstanding, Qin Qianqian returned to the capital to resume her business. Before long, Mu Xuanlan discovered that Qin Qianqian might have been plotting an earth-shattering deception from the very moment they first met...

Reading Guide:

1. Qin Qianqian is Jiang Qianqiu's official secret identity: sweet, silly, and so ordinary she blends into the dust. It's her way of surviving. Later plot developments explain the rest, so I'll leave it at that. Bai Shaohe is Mu Xuanlan's official secret identity, the perfect persona he uses to get close to Qin Qianqian. This novel is also known as The Love Story of Secret Identity Addicts.

2. At first, the male lead approaches the female lead with an ulterior motive, and she knowingly plays along. As for how they both miscalculated and fell genuinely in love, well, fate can be cruel. (Yes, I am fate.)

3. The female lead pretends to be foolish, but she isn't. She's brilliant and always in control. This is a story of two smart, powerful leads vying for power.

4. Both leads are pure; happy ending. After a fierce game of cat and mouse, they win each other over. The male lead gets jealous a whole, whole lot. The story includes, but is not limited to, long-laid plans, love growing over time, faked death, rekindled love, and secret identities being exposed. Enjoy!

5. Important warning:

I'm a reader myself, so I may post comments or paragraph comments from a reader's perspective... I'm a cheerful little mischief-maker in real life, so my comments are mostly playful and absolutely won't spoil anything. If that bothers you, feel free to turn off paragraph comments!

But you'll miss out on a lot of fun, and I'm not kidding!

Next, a recommendation for my next novel:

After battling the Immortal Lord for tens of thousands of years, Demon Lord Zhuohua finally landed a decisive blow, sending him into reincarnation to suffer for ten thousand years.

After torturing him in life after life, Zhuohua grew tired of it and changed tactics: she'd break his heart. She'd heard that heartache was the cruelest torment, making it perfect for her to inflict on her nemesis, Zhou Yi.

But after she too fell into the mortal realm and suffered misfortune, she was moved by Zhou Yi's devotion and fell for him. Yet just when Zhou Yi loved her most, she stubbornly insisted that she had only ever schemed against him and had no genuine feelings at all. Little did she know, those words destroyed every possibility of the two of them finding a happy ending.

Then her ambitious, treacherous disciple seized the opportunity and tried to imprison her for all eternity. He was taking a gamble, betting that once Zhou Yi regained his divine status, he would see right from wrong and let go of that delusional, misplaced love.

The Immortal Lord should have let go, but Zhou Yi couldn't.

After rescuing her, he became consumed by boundless hatred:

Why was he the only one who loved so deeply?

Fortunately, as the new Demon Lord, nothing could stop him anymore. It was time to make her repay him a hundred, a thousand times over.

Zhuohua: My lord, can't you have a little ambition? Why not seize this chance to conquer the Heavenly Court and butcher the gods?

Zhou Yi: Our feud is not over. I have no mind for anything else for now.

The gods: Education must start young. The Demon Lords we've taught have all been exceptionally well-behaved.

But to the Heavenly Realm, now that their positions have been switched, Zhuohua is the Immortal Lord, and naturally their only hope of standing against the Demon Lord... So a united rescue plan had to be drawn up under the leadership of her disciple.

Zhou Yi: How dare you bully a demon! You even dare to steal my beloved! (Turns to her) Just try going with him.

Zhuohua: I don't know anything. Just don't let their blood splatter on me.

The gods: I gave my heart to the bright moon, but alas, the moon's heart is truly dark!

1. Characters: An aloof, decisive heroine who stays sharp in good times and bad VS a once-obedient, now-deranged male lead who is always jealous and utterly lovesick.

2. Both leads are pure; happy ending. The angst in the plot is just there to heighten the tension. Once the male lead turns dark, he stays dark. He'll do plenty of bad things, though his love for the heroine never changes, and he'll get what's coming to him. Let me say it again: this has a happy ending.

3. There's more to the blurb's point of view than meets the eye. The male lead fell deeply in love very early on; he wasn't deceived into falling for her. The female lead, meanwhile, is a stone-cold tree that hasn't blossomed in ten thousand years, and she doesn't even realize that she's always treated him differently.

Theme: Fulfill your duty.