When I was dressed up to look like a young woman, I asked Ah Huang why the moon in the sky waxed and waned.
He said, "The moon is like a firefly, gathering and scattering in its own time. The moon gathers people's wishes. Sometimes their prayers are answered, and the moon becomes full. Sometimes they leave with regrets, and the moon wanes. In the palace, people's hearts are devoured by towers and jade pavilions. They cannot see through the high palace gates, and their desires are bottomless. So when they look at the moon, they see it waning more often than full."
When I became the lost princess everyone was searching for, left adrift and homeless, I knew he had lied to me. Nowhere in the world could the moon be made to linger in that moment of fullness.
After the remnants of the former dynasty faded into obscurity, he used a hundred miles of bloodshed as his bridal gift and married me, saddling me with the name of a ruinous enchantress.
He emptied the treasury and exhausted the people, using giant pearls from the deep sea for walls, painted glass tiles for the roof, and vermilion pillars of pure gold to grant me a Moon-Sundering Tower.
First-person POV from the gong. A fallen princess as the gong and the new dynasty's tyrant as the shou. A melodramatic romance in the style of twenty years ago, with a Mary Sue, cross-dressing gong.
Theme: A melodramatic romance in the style of twenty years ago
The beautiful cold palace princess and the domineering cool secret guard, madam, why do you cook so deliciously?
This encounter is unforgettable