There's a Prince with a God Complex in the Mountains

【Upright little country girl x fussy, tearful prince-type】 【Pride and Prejudice in the mountains | Reality-swap variety show】 【Mutual healing】 In the spring of 2010, the nationwide urban-rural exchange show Trading Lives became a huge hit. While playing games at an internet cafe, Xu Sirui overheard some girls nearby discussing the show. He couldn't help sneering to himself: It's a cheesy show full of scripted scenes and cheap tricks, and people actually get emotionally invested in it? Little did he know that three days later, his parents would trick him into going to the middle of nowhere in the mountains. A middle-aged man came running toward him with the production crew, extending his right hand and beaming. “You must be Xu Sirui, the internet-addicted young master of Delicious Foods Co., Ltd.! I'm the producer of Trading Lives. A pleasure to meet you! Your parents signed you up for our spoiled-kid reform show. For the next semester, you'll live with a villager and experience the hardships of life in the mountains. The goal is to help you kick your internet addiction, turn over a new leaf, and become a better person.” Xu Sirui: “...?” -- The so-called villager was a scrappy little girl with a buzz cut, driving an ox cart. Her skin was dark, her looks had nothing to do with beauty, yet she'd named herself Zhu Yingning after one of the beautiful female spirits in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Her greatest passion was standing up for justice and punishing evil. -- On the first day Xu Sirui arrived in the mountains, Zhu Yingning decided he was a hopeless case with a severe case of prince syndrome. On the second day, she suspected he was a pervert. On the fourth day, the pervert had leveled up into a violent thug. It wasn't until the fifth day that she realized he was just a crybaby who put on a tough front. Zhu Yingning saw a glimmer of hope that he could be reformed. She taught him to eat flowers, took him out to play with snap-poppers, and helped him get along with his classmates. She tried every possible way to set him straight. Just when she was about to succeed, the show was abruptly canceled, and Xu Sirui vanished without a trace. -- They met again in the capital. She was studying there on her own, a drifter from the countryside, with her belongings packed in an oil-stained woven-plastic sack. Beijing was a city of endless traffic and constant arrivals and departures, burying the dreams of countless outsiders. He became her first anchor in the city. Through all the rises and falls, he lifted her up and carried her through life. -- 【Reader's Guide】 ① A story about curing prince syndrome and a mountain girl's struggle to make something of herself. The male lead first goes to the countryside, while the female lead later leaves the mountains. ② Neither lead is perfect. The male lead has a severe case of prince syndrome; the female lead is neither pretty nor sweet and cuddly. Other people train the male lead like a wolfhound, while she trains him like a beagle. ③ A coming-of-age story with a realistic feel and a slower pace, not a fast-paced wish-fulfillment novel. It follows the leads from middle school through their working lives. ④ The male lead is a virgin; the female lead's status is undecided. ⑤ For more detailed content warnings, see the author's note in Chapter 28. Theme: I was born to be a mountain, not a stream.