Stealing the Noble Consort

"I hate that the moon hangs high and shines on everyone but me. I hate that the moon hangs high and once shone on me alone." The deranged crown prince tears out his heart and guts, begging to be forgiven and loved again!

[Synopsis]

Ying Zhaoli's life was split into two halves, one before and one after, when she was sixteen.

Before sixteen, she was the second daughter of the prestigious Ying family, the foremost household in Nankang, honored and respected wherever she went.

At sixteen, Ying Zhaoli met a qin player from a Taoist sect and fell for him at first sight. She thought he was infatuated with her and willing to give up his way of life for her. She was so delighted that she stayed up all night, planning to ask her father at dawn to let them marry.

Deep in the night, her elder brother burst into her bedroom. He wouldn't let her ask questions, only ordering bodyguards to escort her away.

Her father, clad in armor and helmet and wielding a long spear, fought a path clear for her.

The musician was only a disguise. His name wasn't Tongguang. He was a hidden piece sent by their enemies.

Her father, brother, family retainers, and servants were all killed. She failed to escape alive. In prison, he came to see her and said the Ying family had killed his entire family and deserved to die. But for the bond between master and disciple, he would spare her life.

Ying Zhaoli wanted to devour his flesh and blood. She glared at him as he disappeared from sight, then spent the next three years searching for him in vain.

Three years later, at a palace banquet in Shangdu, a woman presented by Quzhou dazzled everyone with a breathtaking dance performed in the emperor's palm. The emperor made her a Noble Consort.

The crown prince, who had been living among the people before being brought back to the Eastern Palace, watched the Noble Consort's humble, dust-stained figure, and trembled as the moon returned to his heart.

In a quiet spot along the palace path, the crown prince, praised by officials for his integrity and refinement, completely lost his composure. He clutched the Noble Consort's thin wrist and snapped, "What? Did you enter the palace to take revenge on me? Do you think you're still the lofty second daughter of the Ying family?"

The Noble Consort's eyes were calm. She said there was no need to dwell on the past. She had long since forgotten it all.

He naturally didn't believe her. "You retreat in order to advance. I was the one who taught you that trick back then. Now you're using it on me? You're utterly foolish!"

"Your Highness, you worry too much."

She seemed truly indifferent now. The fiery hatred of the past and the love bright as the morning sun were both gone. She kept to her place, never overstepping or sowing discord between father and son before the emperor, whose relationship with the crown prince was already fragile. Until one day, the crown prince saw her standing quietly among the flowers, her jade-like face shy, just as it had been when she faced him years ago, while another man brushed a petal from her hair. That man had grown up with her. If she had never met the crown prince, she would already have become that man's wife.

[Female Lead]

Ying Zhaoli enters the palace to avenge her father, only to unexpectedly encounter the ill-fated love of her youth.

She tells him that she has long since forgotten the past.

But he refuses to accept it. The less she loves or hates him, the more deranged he becomes. He swings his blade and cuts off the head of the enemy who destroyed the Ying family, then holds it up before her. Blood still on his face, he laughs and says, "I've avenged your entire family. Can you forgive the wrong I did back then?"

Her childhood sweetheart is imprisoned in a dungeon, while Ying Zhaoli is locked to the bedpost by him. Her skin trembles beneath the brocade quilt as she says, "I forgive you."

"I don't believe you. You're lying to me. I can't see any hatred in your eyes!"

Without hatred, there can be no love. What he wants is the most passionate version of her, the one who once gave him everything.

"Zhaoli, my beloved disciple," he murmurs by her ear, using the old pet name from their letters. He takes her trembling hand from behind, while the blade points straight at the emperor. "I was deceived back then, and so were you. It was the corrupt Ying family who killed my family, along with the foolish emperor they served. I'll help you kill him. Once he's dead, your family will be avenged. I'll still be Tongguang, and we can start over. How about it?"

[Content Warnings]

The synopsis says most of it: the female lead's family killed the male lead's entire family. The male lead did not kill the female lead's family, but she mistakenly believes that he did.

The leads are both sexually inexperienced. At first, the male lead only pretends to be moved by her. His love is mixed with cruelty, and later he forcibly takes her.

The male lead is extremely deranged. He keeps a severed head by the bed, kills his father as an offering to heaven to win her love, and is deeply twisted. Please don't read if that's not for you!

More to come!

Theme: Cherish time.