When Ji Yao arrived, the original owner had just been killed with a cup of poisoned wine.
-- Word was, the powerful chancellor Xie Xian had ordered it.
It was also said that Xie Xian had been the original owner's sworn enemy for years, an ungrateful wretch who had fought her tooth and nail. At last, he had won and killed her.
By a twist of fate, Ji Yao, disguised, was sent into the chancellor's residence as a beauty to be offered to Xie Xian. She had no choice but to keep her mask firmly in place and hide her identity in the residence.
She saw Xie Xian secretly investigating the original owner's whereabouts, apparently unwilling to believe she was dead.
Ji Yao was afraid he would discover she was still alive and finish her off.
To stay alive, she secretly followed Xie Xian and quietly patched up all the glaring holes in the evidence of her death.
Xie Xian: I found something suspicious about the circumstances of A Yao's death today...
Ji Yao: Patch it up, patch it up.
Xie Xian: This is evidence that A Yao might still be alive!
Ji Yao: Wipe it out, wipe it out.
Xie Xian refused to give up and continued his investigation.
Ji Yao grew more and more terrified. To save her life, she used the System to exchange for a lifelike corpse and sent it to Xie Xian.
She finally breathed a sigh of relief. Surely Xie Xian would be satisfied now.
But when she returned to the chancellor's residence, she heard that Xie Xian had fainted after coughing up blood.
After he awoke, Chancellor Xie placed the corpse in his room and talked to it every day. He could hardly bear to live without it.
Ji Yao: !!!
So Chancellor Xie had such a peculiar fetish...
[An unbelievably oblivious beauty vs. a seemingly cold and ruthless but actually sensitive, gloomy chancellor]
An extroverted heroine vs. an overthinking hero
*
Only later did Ji Yao learn the truth.
Everyone said that the original owner and Xie Xian had been sworn enemies, but in fact they had nearly become a married couple. Xie Xian had fallen deeply in love with her.
But the original owner had already passed away, her spirit gone forever.
Until one day, Ji Yao accidentally shifted the disguise mask on her face, revealing most of it.
Xie Xian stared at her, tears suddenly streaming down his thin face.
All his doubts and fears, all the torment he'd endured, finally came to rest in that moment.
He let out a long sigh.
Ji Yao ran away in a panic. "You've mistaken me for someone else. Your A Yao is dead. I'm not her."
Xie Xian gave a hoarse, bitter laugh. "How could I ever mistake A Yao for someone else?"
[Reading Tips]
1. The heroine was not killed by the hero! He loves her dearly and would do anything for her, but he would never hurt her.
2. The heroine is the original owner. She lost her memories for certain reasons, and the hero only approached her after recognizing her. There's no substitute; it's just a bit of fun between a couple.
Theme: Love is the recognition of one soul by another.
