Another Failed Assassination Today

Liu Ronggui was beautiful. People said that if she didn't have a father who was a county magistrate and a powerful family backing her betrothed, countless people would be fighting to claim a woman like her.

Then, overnight, her family fell from grace.

An imperial censor uncovered her father's embezzlement of official funds, and he was sentenced to death after the autumn harvest. As a daughter awaiting marriage, Liu Ronggui was spared.

On the very first day of the family's troubles, the local bully came knocking, intent on forcing himself on Liu Yungui, whose beauty had only grown more striking.

Liu Ronggui gripped a Green Dragon Crescent Blade and drove the bully away with a flurry of blows.

Just then, her betrothed's family, who held government posts in the capital, sent a letter saying they didn't mind what had happened to her family. They hoped she would come to the capital and marry as planned at the end of June.

Liu Ronggui had heard that the censor who had punished her father had been promoted to Grand Secretary for his service. And the current Grand Secretary was her betrothed's uncle.

Her personal maid watched Liu Ronggui sharpening her enormous blade, trembling as she asked, "Miss, what are you doing? Weren't we going to the capital?"

Liu Ronggui's beautiful, peach-blossom eyes gleamed in the sunlight. "Of course. I'm going to the capital to chop off the head of the bastard who framed my father."

After arriving in the capital, Liu Ronggui secretly searched for a chance to make a move on Xie Xuejin.

The first time, she pretended to fall into the water, planning to take him down with her when he jumped in to save her. Instead, he called over a female bodyguard to rescue her.

The second time, she pretended to be drunk and homesick, intending to throw herself into his arms and cry. But he dodged so quickly she didn't even touch his sleeve, and she ran straight into a tree.

The third time.

Liu Ronggui fumed. "Why is this man so hard to kill?"

She decided to charge straight at him with her blade. Hesitation meant defeat, so she had to act decisively.

But before she could bring the blade down, she overheard someone outside the door saying Xie Xuejin wasn't the censor. She'd targeted the wrong man. Worse, Xie Xuejin had been trying all along to find evidence that her father had been framed.

Liu Ronggui was mortified and filled with guilt.

From then on, she went out of her way to fuss over Xie Xuejin and ask after his well-being, hoping he would clear her father's name as soon as possible.

Xie Xuejin: So she really does admire me. For a woman, she's remarkably unconcerned with what society thinks.

Once Liu Ronggui's father was exonerated, she packed her bags and ran straight back to her hometown.

Xie Xuejin: Fine. Just you wait. For her, I can stop being a gentleman.

*

Xie Xuejin came from the prestigious Xie family. From a young age, he had been disciplined and proper, and outsiders all said that the Second Young Master of the Xie family was a true gentleman.

He placed first in the imperial examinations at eighteen and rose steadily through the ranks, becoming Grand Secretary at twenty-six.

He'd assumed he'd marry a woman from a similarly distinguished family and spend their lives treating each other with courtesy. That was until he saw his nephew's fiancee.

That beautiful, vibrant young woman seemed to be secretly seducing him. He'd thought his heart was still as calm as water, but in the end, she threw him into disarray.

He realized he had never been any sort of proper gentleman. If he could, he wanted the young woman's gaze fixed on him forever.

A once aloof and proper scion of a noble family who goes mad for love x a beautiful woman who is single-minded, bold, and unafraid to love and hate

Her fiance is a complete scumbag.

Theme: Where there's a will, there's a way.