When All the Peach Blossoms in Chang'an Have Fallen

[Currently serializing Coward Before Him, please support it!]

[Completed works: Cherish You, Spring's Long Crossing, Exploring the Capital, Plucking Green Joy]

"She was the peach blossom he was too timid to reach for in his youth."

Xu Xiyuan was born into a prominent family, exceptionally talented and breathtakingly beautiful. At seventeen, she married Pei Yanzhi, the second young master of the Prince's estate, in a marriage arranged for mutual benefit.

·

Pei Yanzhi had royal blood, was both scholarly and skilled in martial arts, and was an elegant, handsome young nobleman. Yet he was renowned for his aloof and arrogant nature.

·

On their wedding night, the two sat in silence at the table for a long while.

Beneath the red candles, she spoke. "You agreed to marry me because you want to use my father's influence to help you achieve your ambitions. And I married you just to spite my faithless Crown Prince cousin. We're both just putting on an act, so there's no need to take it seriously."

As the candlelight flickered, Pei Yanzhi leisurely picked a tassel loose from her sash, his eyes dark with surging emotion. "Since you've seen through it, why not make our performance more convincing?"

·

One day, assassins broke into the estate. Xu Xiyuan took a sword meant for Pei Yanzhi and remained unconscious for three days.

When she awoke, she saw her normally composed husband, eyes bloodshot, gripping her wrist as he rasped out his question: "If it had been your Crown Prince cousin who married you, would you have risked your life for him like that?"

Xu Xiyuan frowned in pain. "Pei Yanzhi... don't tell me you've started taking this act seriously?"

·

Later, at the Peach Blossom Banquet in Chang'an, Pei Yanzhi publicly snapped off every blazing bloom in the garden, then tucked a rouge-stained peachwood hairpin into her hair.

·

"That year, you tossed flowers at the princes and nobles, and one landed on my carriage curtain." He caught the tip of her ear between his teeth and sighed. "Xu Xiyuan, I've never believed in fate."

"But if marrying you is a trap, then I'm willing to spend my whole life imprisoned in it."

·

[Short scene]

One day, Pei Yanzhi found an old note Xu Xiyuan had hidden in her makeup box. Every word was written in blood: "May I marry the most heartless man in the world and put an end to all my foolish desires."

He pinned her against the desk and taught her to rewrite their marriage contract, stroke by stroke: "May I spend my life with Pei Yanzhi."

·

[Reading guide]

1. Both leads are each other's first and only.

2. Marriage first, love later. The aloof beauty goes all out to win his wife back.

3. Sweet romance

Currently serializing Journey to the Eastern Palace Five Years Later, please support it!

When apricot blossoms filled the air in Jiangnan, Shen Qingyin loved to climb over the mottled low wall between their homes and slip freshly steamed plum blossom cakes into the herb-scented palm of the boy next door. "A Yu, Father says he'll teach me to ride a pony after autumn."

The boy gazed at her amber eyes, bathed in sunlight. The copper coin pendant tied to his wrist with a red string dug painfully into his palm.

It was the good-luck charm the little girl had sincerely prayed for at the temple on the rainy night when an old apothecary found him, age eight.

The winter of Ling Kingdom's seventeenth year was bitterly cold.

The Black Armored Guards trampled the snow outside the gate as they escorted the prince who had been living among commoners back to the palace.

Shen Qingyin ran after the procession through three long lanes, but in the end, she could not call back the boy who had promised to pick every peach blossom for her.

So the orphan the old apothecary had taken in was actually a son of the imperial family.

Five years after they parted, Shen Qingyin gazed at the faded good-luck charm at the Crown Prince's waist, her heart heavy with mixed emotions.

The shy boy who used to blush at the sight of anyone had long since become the dignified and noble heir, enthroned in the Eastern Palace.

He stood there, watching her evasive gaze, his voice low and clear. "Qingyin, don't you recognize me?"

She lowered her eyes and bowed deeply. After a long while, she finally spoke. "Your Highness, I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else."

Mistaken you for someone else?

How could that be?

Not long afterward, she became engaged to the top scorer in the palace examinations.

On a snowy night, the Eastern Palace's hidden guards surrounded the top scorer's residence. Xiao Chengyu dipped his brush in ink and wrote his vow on the marriage contract: Shen Qingyin, since you've forgotten the promise we made as children, I'll make you remember a love that cuts to the bone.

After a month of sleeping in separate rooms, he finally couldn't bear it any longer. Gazing at her lovely face, he hesitated, then said, "Um... can I sleep here tonight?"

[Reading guide]

1. An obsessive Crown Prince pursues his beloved wife.

2. Both leads are each other's first and only. Sweet romance.

[Visit the author's profile for more surprises!]

Theme: Treat each other with sincerity