Laughter in the Eastern Palace

Xie Zhenzhen has been a little annoyed lately, all because the Crown Prince is choosing a consort.

Xiao Yu, the current Crown Prince, used to be someone Xie Zhenzhen merely couldn't stand. Now, she hates him more than anyone.

Ever since the Empress issued her decree to choose a daughter-in-law, the capital has been thrown into chaos. Families who don't want their daughters considered are holding all kinds of banquets to arrange matches for them. Her storybooks have lost their market, and her only friend is even planning to leave the capital for the northern frontier to avoid the selection...

Xie Zhenzhen holds Xiao Yu responsible for all of it.

At a flower-viewing banquet at the Qin residence, she learns that her friend has already slipped away from the capital. Sitting alone in a secluded spot, Xie Zhenzhen grows so upset that she picks up a large stone by her feet and hurls it into the lotus pond.

As luck would have it, Xiao Yu is fishing with someone on the other side of the willow tree. The splash not only scares away the fish, it soaks the Crown Prince's dragon robe.

Seeing Xiao Yu's face turn darker than a stormy sky, Xie Zhenzhen shrinks back and lowers her head: o(╥﹏╥)o No wonder the almanac said it was an inauspicious day to go out.

When she goes to the palace to be considered by the Empress, Xie Zhenzhen isn't worried at all.

If she were chosen, it would mean the Empress had lost her mind. Everyone knows the Empress is virtuous, talented, kind, and benevolent, so there's no way she'd lose her head.

But Xie Zhenzhen never imagined that Xiao Yu would hold a grudge. Not only does he single her out in front of everyone, he also orders her to go to the Eastern Palace every day to learn the etiquette of a Crown Princess.

Xie Zhenzhen: ( She swears that from now on, Xiao Yu will be the person she hates most of all!

She couldn't stand Xiao Yu because he'd been arrogant even before becoming Crown Prince.

The first time she came to the capital and attended a banquet, he grabbed her in front of everyone and tried to lift her skirt to look at her "little birdie."

He became even more unbearable after becoming Crown Prince. The way he looked at people was as if everyone in the world were trying to steal his position. He always wore a long face and looked down his nose at everyone. His arrogance knew no bounds!

A man like him couldn't even qualify as a minor villain in her storybooks.

Hmph! Fuming, Xie Zhenzhen leaves the palace and decides to write a storybook where Xiao Yu himself is the despicable villain everyone curses!

One day, Xiao Yu suddenly asks his father for leave to return to the Eastern Palace, only to find hardly anyone along the way.

At last, he spots the Eastern Palace servants in the courtyard by the study. They sit in rows, elbows on their knees and faces cupped in their hands, listening dreamily to the Crown Princess's story.

After listening from a secluded spot for a long while, Xiao Yu is unwilling to admit it, but has to: the arrogant, rude, petty, grudge-holding man who forces respectable women and is about to become a notorious lecher wanted across the country is unmistakably him!

That night, Xie Zhenzhen sniffles under the covers, her eyes red. "Why do you have to be a lecher? What does that have to do with me? I never said it was you."

Xiao Yu smiles and gently strokes the back of the person in his arms through the covers. "I know it has nothing to do with Zhenzhen. I just want to find out what it's like to be a lecher!"

"Mm, tomorrow night I'll find out what it's like to be a bandit who abducts respectable women!"

Xie Zhenzhen shudders, pokes her head out of the covers with messy bedhead, and tearfully begs for mercy. "I was wrong. Next time, I'll write a peerless hero named Xiao Yu."

Xiao Yu's eyes brim with triumphant amusement. "Didn't you say you weren't writing about me?"

Xie Zhenzhen: o(╥﹏╥)o As expected, he's black-hearted and holds a grudge.

P.S. Silly beauty x scheming Crown Prince, 1v1, both leads are each other's first and only.

A sweet little romance, focused entirely on love. Neither lead has a career plotline.

The heroine's formal name is Xie Minshu, and her nickname is Zhenzhen.

[Collection request for the upcoming silly-beauty novel, Moonlight at the Orchid Terrace]

Zhaozhao has a hibiscus face and a willow-slim waist. Skilled in singing and dancing, and versed in music and chess, she entered the palace nine years ago as a dancer and has since worked her way down to tending the kitchen fire. They call her a pretty airhead.

The consorts can't be bothered to be wary of her, and the palace matrons and eunuchs keep their distance, all afraid she'll bore them to death with her stupidity.

Just when everyone in the harem thinks she'll meekly endure ten years before leaving the palace, she starts stirring up trouble.

First, she uses her connections in the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs to get herself transferred out of the kitchen and into the Orchid Terrace.

Then she dresses herself to the nines and coquettishly flirts with the senior officials at the Orchid Terrace while on duty.

The day before yesterday, she stole a glance at Lord Zhang and blushed. Yesterday, she poured tea for Lord Wang and spilled it on his court robes. Today, she twisted her ankle and fell into Lord Li's arms...

Theme: Those who smile often are blessed.