Did the Sickly Beauty Scholar Marry the Princess? [GB]

[🐺 Short-tempered girl × 🌸 Gentle, frail, sickly beauty of an older man | She dotes on him or they dote on each other | Female-oriented male character focus | Clingy, lovey-dovey romance | A severely dependent male lead]

*

Li Nanxi, the Junzhu of Zhaoning from the Yin Prince’s family, was born with extraordinary strength. More than anything, she longed for a carefree life, drifting like clouds and wild cranes. Whenever the mood struck, she would play at being a wandering hero and right wrongs wherever she went.

But after a palace coup, the Yin Prince’s family became the last surviving branch of the imperial clan. Their status changed overnight, and danger lurked everywhere, forcing her to spend five years in the northern frontier.

Years later, she had become the powerful Princess Zhaoning, but her moods had grown wildly unpredictable. Even returning to her old residence in the prince’s manor to recuperate could not soothe the irritability in her heart.

*

One day, a beautiful man with a slender waist but an exceedingly frail body fell into her arms. His eyes were full of panic, and he looked close to death. He begged for help in a faint voice: “Please, my lady, save me…”

Perhaps beautiful things were always hard to resist. Her temper calmed for once, so she took him home and tucked him away like a treasured beauty.

Listening to music and teasing her beauty every day, she found life rather carefree and pleasant.

*

The sickly beauty was as shy and courteous as a gentleman. Yet she watched helplessly as he grew more and more like a bewitching fox, clinging to her at every turn. The moment she treated him with the slightest coolness or neglect, he would show her what it meant for a beauty to shed tears. After crying, he would fall half-dead ill. He was so difficult to care for!

And yet he could always soothe her anger and leave her dreaming of him day and night.

Those people far away in the imperial capital could no longer provoke her into a fury. He was simply too lovable.

*

The beauty turned out to be the current dynasty’s top third-ranked scholar, a man who had dared to refuse a marriage proposal from powerful nobles right after the examinations, yet traveled across mountains and rivers to offer himself to her.

Li Nanxi was baffled. But when the beauty heard her ask about it, tears filled his eyes as he scolded her for being heartless, taking what she wanted and then refusing to take responsibility.

Li Nanxi, feeling she’d been conned into this: ???

*

Li Nanxi: Other people study for ten years to reach the highest offices. You, on the other hand, wander in front of me every day, and cry if I ignore you.

Yu Huaiji: Everyone says that to marry a princess, a man needs a status worthy of her. So I went and earned my official title.

Couple: a love-at-first-sight, short-tempered princess × a gentle, sickly top third-ranked scholar who has been plotting this for a long time

(A wolfish girl who pampers her husband × an older man like a wildflower battered by storms)

[Courtly ABO: the top scholar A and second-ranked scholar B are at work, while the third-ranked scholar O cries in the princess’s manor. (This is not actually an ABO story; it just means the third-ranked scholar neglects his proper duties.)]

[A delicate beauty of a man: Yu Meiren]

Blurb written January 6, 2025, revised July 9, 2026

[Weird personal tastes, homegrown food] This story is just for shipping the couple. No extreme fans of either lead, please.

*Contains an overwhelming amount of male-character-focused writing.

① The female lead has no great Jinjiang-style ambitions; everyone has normal human anatomy. The male lead gives birth in the extras.

② Female-led, male-receptive, one-on-one, both leads’ first time. Husband-pampering story, slice of life, little plot, somewhat like a running account.

③ It isn’t pure fluff until the female lead completely trusts the male lead and is certain she loves him. The plot may put him through the wringer.

④ Female lead: about 18–19 years old, 175 cm tall. Male lead: 24 years old, 188 cm tall.

⑤ Imperial family titles: (without power) prince and princess | (with power) prince and princess | (heir to the throne) Crown Prince and Imperial Princess | Emperor | Empress and Imperial Consort.

⑥ The male lead has psychological trauma and is severely dependent on the female lead. He cannot live without her.

⑦ More details to be added if I think of them…

Theme: Forge through every obstacle and find your way to each other.