After I Began Sharing Feelings with My Archrival

[Updates to match the rankings]

Xie Wuzhi is the crown prince of the Northern Kingdom, and Yan Ziqing is the eldest prince of the Southern Kingdom.

They first met on the front lines of a border battlefield, with the two armies facing off, ready to fight.

Xie Wuzhi sent soldiers to challenge Yan Ziqing, loudly cursing him as a bastard born to a lowborn woman.

Yan Ziqing shot back, hitting the Northern Kingdom's battle flag from a hundred meters away and splitting it in two.

After that, Yan Ziqing concealed his identity and tricked Xie Wuzhi twice in a row, making a fortune. Xie Wuzhi, furious and humiliated, retaliated by leading his army to capture three cities in the Southern Kingdom.

From then on, the two were sworn enemies, hoping every day that the other would drop dead as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans. An accident left them both infected with the same Gu poison.

In the middle of a fight, Yan Ziqing slashed Xie Wuzhi's arm. The same spot on Yan Ziqing's own arm began to hurt.

Xie Wuzhi grabbed Yan Ziqing by the throat. A moment later, he started choking too.

Yan Ziqing & Xie Wuzhi: "You son of a ****! You ambushed me!"

With no other choice, the two men who despised each other had to cover for one another until they could break the curse.

*

With their lives bound by a soulmate Gu, they worked together openly to break it while secretly plotting against each other.

Yan Ziqing spoke honeyed words while harboring a hidden blade, luring Xie Wuzhi into the mountains of Southern Xinjiang, hoping to make his escape once the curse was lifted.

But the uninhabited lands of Southern Xinjiang were full of danger. Yan Ziqing let his guard down for a moment and fell into a deep ravine with Xie Wuzhi. They struggled ashore from the rushing river.

Shivering around a bonfire, the two men found themselves in rare agreement as they cursed the harmful art of witchcraft and Gu magic.

Xie Wuzhi gritted his teeth. "Before I left Yanjing, someone read my fortune. That fortune-teller was a hack. He said I had a fated love, and now look at the miserable state I'm in..."

"Turns out they're all just rotten peach blossoms meant to fool people!"

As he spoke, he glared at Yan Ziqing, his eyes full of anger and meaning.

Yan Ziqing: "?" What did that mean? Was he still trying to provoke me?

*

Yan Ziqing fought Xie Wuzhi and was subdued on the spot. He gave up resisting and let Xie Wuzhi take him back to the Northern Border, where he was confined to the residence.

On his first day in the Northern Border, Xie Wuzhi cursed him out for half an hour. It barely made a dent.

On his sixth day in the Northern Border, his arrow wound flared up and he lost consciousness. When his fever finally broke, he heard Xie Wuzhi say he would cut him into a thousand pieces.

On his thirty-ninth day in the Northern Border, Xie Wuzhi had stopped trying to break the curse and no longer said anything cutting. He took a pair of live geese and kicked open the door to Yan Ziqing's bedroom. "Accept my betrothal gifts, and I'll reluctantly spare your life."

Yan Ziqing: "?"

I must be hearing things. Did my sworn enemy just say he wants to marry me?

*

[Supporting character's perspective: a little skit]

Yan Zhen, the Southern Kingdom's second prince, had a dream. In it, his elder brother lost the struggle for the crown prince's position and was banished to his fief in Luzhou, with no chance of ever taking the throne.

Yan Zhen seized power without a hitch and ordered his elder brother's execution to eliminate any future threat. But before long, the enemy army broke through the kingdom's gates, and his elder brother's lover stormed into the palace with a long halberd and stabbed Yan Zhen straight through.

When he woke in a panic, he hurried to plead for his elder brother, asking that he be sent to the front lines to oversee the fighting.

Half a year passed. The border war was at a stalemate. He heard that his elder brother was too busy defending against foreign enemies for love, and had even made an enemy of the Northern Kingdom's crown prince.

Yan Zhen spread more rumors, hoping to get rid of his elder brother once and for all.

But the moment his elder brother was escorted back to the capital, the Northern Kingdom's army was already at the gates. The Northern Kingdom's crown prince personally led his troops through the palace gates and demanded to know where the eldest prince was.

Yan Zhen suddenly realized that the man rumored to be his elder brother's sworn enemy had the exact same face as the lover in his dream!

What the ****!

How could the two of you get together? Are you insane?

#How did my peach blossoms turn into a peach blossom calamity? I thought my romantic luck had finally come around#

#Isn't it only natural that my sworn enemy should die by my hand?#

Venomous beauty x crown prince of an enemy kingdom. Both strong.

Content warnings:

1. Slow burn at first, with a lot of buildup. The top and bottom formally meet in Chapter 8.

2. Set in a fictional historical dynasty. The map is based on the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, but most details are invented. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy.

3. Includes subtle elements of being reborn and transmigrating, but only to serve the romance and barely affect the main plot.

4. The political scheming is elementary-school level. Bugs are to be expected; I'll patch things up in another chapter.

5. There are no secondary couples in the main story, apart from married husband-and-wife or husband-and-husband couples.

Blurb written on 2025.1.22

Theme: Live toward the light