My Imperial Sister Saves Me

[Clear-eyed, resilient younger sister x Cool-headed, scheming older brother]

“I’m Li Qi, your imperial brother.”

Many years ago, young Huining was brought back from the common folk to the imperial palace. When she first met the Crown Prince, Li Qi, he said this to her.

Years later, she was confined to the Temple for the Protection of the Nation under the pretext of praying for the country’s blessings as a princess. In the unseen hours of night, the ancient temple was full of secrets, madness, and absurdity.

The new Emperor, Li Qi, pinned her against the shrine. Moonlight swayed as their bodies rocked together, nothing like his former cool restraint.

His long, jade-like fingers stroked the side of her neck, restrained passion in his voice. “If my imperial sister minds, I can keep pretending to be your imperial brother forever.”

“Huining, Huining...” Li Qi sighed. “You never did understand me...”

She did not understand how the constraints of their identities and propriety tormented him day and night.

Nor did she understand how those constraints had been ground away and dissolved by his brutally growing possessiveness.

*

The Crown Prince Qi was graceful and composed, a man of dignity and restraint. He had practically taken the place of their father as his siblings’ elder, and was held in high regard among the imperial heirs. He was the crown prince upon whom great hopes had been placed.

In the magnificent yet gloomy imperial palace, Huining, a princess brought back from the common folk, was not held in high regard.

It was her imperial brother Li Qi, like a bright lamp in the dark night, who lowered himself to give her shelter and warmth, and bestowed upon her the title Wangning.

Then one day, the Emperor suddenly fell gravely ill, and the Kingdom of Nanzhao took the opportunity to rebel. The court officials urged that the princess be sent into a political marriage to temporarily end the war.

Huining did not want to put the Crown Prince, who was ruling in the Emperor’s stead, in a difficult position. In the inner palace, she had nothing to offer in return for her brother’s care except her status as a princess.

In the Imperial Study, she spoke with a resolute gaze. “The king of Nanzhao is heroic and handsome. I admired him even when I was living among the common folk. What kind of brother obstructs a wonderful match for no reason?”

“Now that you’ve grown up and found someone you love, you don’t need your brother anymore?” Jealous anger surged within Li Qi. “Very well, then. Let it be as you wish.”

But just two years later, the new Emperor Li Qi’s cavalry trampled the Kingdom of Nanzhao.

She hid inside a golden tent, her waterfall of black hair draped down to conceal her snowy shoulders.

The fearsome aura of a man who had crossed mountains of corpses and seas of blood faded quietly when the new Emperor saw the princess. He grasped the golden blade she held to her throat, his voice low and hoarse. “It was my fault for failing you, Sister!”

She looked up in terror, then slowly reached out to wipe the blood spattered across her brother’s face, calling to him in a trembling voice.

Li Qi held her tightly in his arms. His normally cold, deep voice wavered. “Your brother is here. I’ve come to take you home.”

*

The Imperial Crane Bureau sent one beauty after another to the princess’s residence.

At last, unable to bear it any longer, the new Emperor hurried through the forbidden palace in a sedan chair one night and kicked open the carved wooden doors.

His imperial sister was deep in her cups, her beauty dazzling.

Li Qi’s gaze was dark, as if she were already his, and his possessiveness was impossible to ignore.

“Does my imperial sister know why I bestowed upon you the title Wangning?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know.” Huining smiled through her tears, drunk, and mustered the courage to put her arms around his neck. “The Imperial Crane Bureau found so many men, but none can compare to you, Imperial Brother.”

“If marrying someone else in a political marriage is punishment for coveting my brother, then Huining is willing to accept it.”

- The leads are not biological siblings. There is more to the story.

- Both are pure, and it has a happy ending.

- Character cards provided with thanks to WANG-PT.

Theme: Keep your brilliance concealed until the right moment