[Temporarily on hiatus. I'm a little stuck, but I won't abandon it.]
*
At thirteen, Liu Lingyu was promised to the Thirteenth City, where she would marry its legendary lame lord. So, during her last three years in Liang, the princess did whatever she pleased.
Everyone said the princess was spoiled and brazen. She even declared that she would top the Wen Yuan Pavilion rankings, despite the fact that the pavilion was a place for men to study!
Liu Lingyu flipped over a wooden desk in the pavilion and clapped her hands. “Starting today, we're changing the rules!”
In the Wen Yuan Pavilion, students whispered that the princess was the most powerful person in all of Liang, thanks to her connections.
Liu Lingyu stuffed a steamed bun into each of their mouths and grinned. “So what if I am?”
There was only one person who could never provoke the princess's temper: Xu Jibai, first on the Wen Yuan Pavilion's honor roll and the Grand Tutor's favorite student.
The two most respectable things Liu Lingyu ever did in Liang were planting flowers and falling for Xu Jibai.
She was about to spend the rest of her life married to someone she didn't love. Was she not allowed to pursue the person she did love while she was still in Liang?
So the princess changed her mind. If she couldn't take the top spot on the Wen Yuan Pavilion's honor roll, she could take the person who held it instead.
Once she turned sixteen, all of Liang busied itself with preparations for the princess's wedding.
Liu Lingyu asked Xu Jibai if he would marry her. In the end, he didn't.
Liu Lingyu swore she would never fall for a spineless man again, and that from then on she would never love Xu Jibai again.
*
When Liu Lingyu arrived in the Thirteenth City, she learned the rumors were true: her new husband really was confined to a wheelchair.
But no one had told her that her lame husband had a mad younger brother who would rip off her Liang clothes and stick a knife into her head.
Liu Lingyu didn't like the Thirteenth City, so she silently shortened its life in her mind.
The marriage alliance was a pretense; her real goal was to scheme against it.
Her bridal makeup was a sword hilt, her wedding dress a blade. She had come to reclaim the Thirteenth City.
The moon of Liang couldn't be seen from the Thirteenth City. Sometimes Liu Lingyu thought of Xu Jibai.
She didn't love Xu Jibai anymore; it was just that she still needed him to look after her flowers.
If her flowers withered, she would never forgive him.
Xu Jibai, Xu Jibai... He was all she could think about.
Liu Lingyu grew tired of it and decided to turn the Thirteenth City upside down and return to Liang.
*
The princess did not forgive Xu Jibai, even though her flowers were safe and sound.
People across Liang speculated that Shen Zhian, the dashing young general who had grown up with the princess, would become her husband. After all, the two were often inseparable.
Who could have guessed that the princess would turn around and take in an entertainer?
Who would become the princess's next husband became a favorite topic of gossip across Liang.
Then Liu Lingyu announced to the world on a scroll of yellow paper: This princess will neither marry nor be married off!
*
[Reunion after a long separation, both leads have no other romantic partners, not a tragic ending, not multiple partners]
[The heroine has many male confidants, but only shares mutual romantic feelings with the hero]
[Not a conventional strong-female-lead story. The heroine has no golden finger, and the hero appears less often. The story focuses more on plot]
Blurb last edited July 11, 2025
Theme: Every parting has its time.
