Little Pearl

The handsome Crown Prince of the Great Jin Dynasty has come of age. The whole capital begins searching for a Crown Princess, and his attendants eagerly gather portraits of the unmarried women in the city to present to him.

The Crown Prince is harsh and picky, with impossibly high standards. He dislikes almost all of them:

A mole by the corner of her mouth. No.

Too thin. No.

Her eyes are too gentle. No.

Then he sees a portrait of a young woman. The face is crudely drawn, her features are a muddled mess from a mistake with the ink, and her body shape is impossible to make out. The style is bizarre, and the words "stupid" and "very stupid" have been written in bold. She's been criticized in every possible way.

Among all the exquisite portraits, hers stands out by a mile.

The Crown Prince has never seen anyone like her. He chokes on his water several times, feeling contrary all at once. With a wave of his hand, he points to the girl and says,

"Her. I'll marry her and keep her in the Eastern Palace to ward off evil. Perfect."

-

Jiang Zhiyu is the unloved daughter of her family, and she's not very bright. She's been bullied since childhood. But she's beautiful, and after finally reaching marriageable age, her stepmother still wants to marry her off to an old widower.

When the Crown Prince begins choosing a Crown Princess, her stepmother doesn't want Jiang Zhiyu to be considered. She wants her elder sister to go instead, so she bribes the artist to make Jiang Zhiyu's portrait look terrible.

To her surprise, her sister isn't chosen. Jiang Zhiyu, not the brightest girl, is selected as Crown Princess from among all the stunning beauties.

Jiang Zhiyu meets the dignified, noble Crown Prince for the first time, and the two stare at each other in silence for three whole seconds.

As soon as she enters the Eastern Palace, Jiang Zhiyu finds herself surrounded by wolves. That's when she realizes that she and the Crown Prince are worlds apart in their likes and habits.

She's clumsy and slow, while the Crown Prince acts as he pleases. Without the features in her portrait, he can't even recognize her.

Apart from spending time together every night to cultivate their "marital affection," she can barely catch a glimpse of him.

The jackals and tigers had their eyes on this little lamb, but the little Crown Princess is too foolish to understand their hidden meanings. She wears a sweet smile for everyone, and when she's truly bullied, she just cries and sadly hides in a corner to grow mushrooms.

The Crown Prince is at his wits' end. He has married a silly little Crown Princess whom he can't scold or reprimand, and now he has to frown and stand up for her, then go soothe her in a fit of rage.

Every day, he reminds himself three times: Don't be fierce. Don't give her a cold look. Don't let your veins bulge in anger and make you lose the dignity of a ruler.

Jiang Zhiyu is envied by others and hounded by rumors. They say she's helpless without the Crown Prince, incompetent, a pretty face with nothing in her head, and a disgrace to the royal ancestors.

Jiang Zhiyu feels terribly wronged. When she hears that the ministers have advised the Crown Prince to replace her, she writes a tear-stained farewell letter and decides to sneak away on a dark, windy night, never to be criticized again. She won't be a foolish Crown Princess anymore.

But when she finally musters the courage to slip out, she finds the Crown Prince, fully dressed, sitting in the main hall. Who knows how long he's been there. Beside him are her favorite iced milk curd, osmanthus cakes, soft silk, brocade, delicate fans, jade ruyi, agate beads, mother-of-pearl pearls... He asks her,

"Crown Princess, would you reconsider?"

Jiang Zhiyu is stunned, and her little bundle drops to the ground with a thump.

Boohoo, this is so unfair! What is she supposed to do now? T.T

At first, Jiang Zhiyu plans to just live one day at a time. When the Crown Prince gets tired of her, she'll ask to leave the palace.

Later, as she watches her belly grow bigger by the day, she feels conflicted. Maybe she should wait until the baby is born before leaving.

In the end, she finally sits on the Empress's throne, watching everyone who once spoke cruelly to her bow and pay their respects. Bewildered, she wonders:

How did things end up like this...

[Mini-scene]

Before her coronation as Empress, the Crown Princess and the Crown Prince have a spat.

Jiang Zhiyu asks through her sobs, "Why did you marry me?"

The Crown Prince is absorbed in his paperwork and doesn't answer.

Jiang Zhiyu loses confidence. "Why would you like someone like me? They all say I'm a pretty face with nothing in my head, and that I'm not worthy of you."

The Crown Prince takes a moment from his busy schedule to tell her to listen to fewer rumors and read fewer romance novels.

Jiang Zhiyu is disheartened. Gripping her skirt, she sheds tears. "Maybe we should get a divorce. I can't be a good empress. I'm just a fool."

The Crown Prince sighs, sets down the mountain of memorials on his desk, and gathers the little girl with tears brimming in her eyes into his arms. He says earnestly,

"You're not a fool. You're the apple of my eye."

*

"I have a wife, cherished like a precious pearl and treasured jewel."

The Chronicles of Crown Prince Huaizhao

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· Kindhearted, soft-hearted, beautiful little airhead x ruthless and sharp-tongued in public, doting wife-watcher in private Crown Prince

· 1v1, both first-time partners, happy ending | married first, love later | daily doting | cheerful, sweet romance | light comedy

· The male lead keeps a cool face while doting on his wife. The leads have a slight height difference.

· A look at the daily life in the Eastern Palace of a tyrannosaur Crown Prince and his little airhead sweetheart.

Blurb premise screenshotted and archived in May 2025.

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Please add my upcoming story, The Lazy Beauty Marries into the Eastern Palace, to your favorites!

Blurb:

Yuan Mingjin has a lovely face with apricot cheeks and peach blossoms. She's a little spoiled and lazy, and though her family isn't an illustrious clan, they dote on her.

She's been lucky since childhood. She even finds gold ingots on the road. In the three times she's traveled away from home in her sixteen years, every place she visited flourished after she left. They practically wanted to put her in a temple and worship her. Her life has been smooth sailing from start to finish.

The powerful and distinguished families in the capital all think she brings good fortune and want to marry her into their households to bring good luck. One after another, they send proposals.

Yuan family's mother: My daughter was raised to be pampered. She can't get used to ordinary people's food.

Yuan family's father: My daughter is spoiled. Anyone without money and connections can't afford to support her.

Yuan Mingjin: My parents are right.

Yuan Mingjin has grown accustomed to being lazy. She only wants to enjoy life, not suffer. Her greatest ambition is to marry a rich man and lie flat for the rest of her life.

So the whole family agrees, and her parents point out the flaws in a huge stack of marriage proposals.

This one has a mole on his face, this one's got too many concubines, that one's a mama's boy...

But when the royal family chooses a wife for the Crown Prince, Yuan Mingjin is selected from among a hundred wooden lots.

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau makes its calculations and celebrates: Their fates are a perfect match, and their birth charts are an ideal fit!

Yuan Mingjin accidentally marries the Crown Prince of the current dynasty.

Well, that works too. Crown Prince Yan Xu has power, wealth, and good looks. For the sake of her future happiness, she'll serve him well and hold on tight to such a wealthy man.

Yuan Mingjin has it all planned out. She and Yan Xu will treat each other with respect. He'll diligently govern and uphold the state, while she focuses on looking beautiful and cheering him on. They'll mind their own business and live in harmony.

Ideally, they'll also have a child to inherit the throne, and enjoy wealth and glory for the rest of their lives.

But after they marry, things gradually start to go wrong.

Crown Prince: Why don't you come kiss me?

Crown Prince: Why do you only care about eating, drinking, and having fun?

Crown Prince: Is there another man in your heart?

In the end, Yuan Mingjin gets pregnant and gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Yan Xu watches her, his peach-blossom eyes fixed on her, his voice cool as he says,

"You only sleep with the babies, not with me. Don't you love me anymore?"

Yuan Mingjin: After soothing the little ones, I have to soothe the big one too. What kind of life is this?

#Lying flat all the way to becoming Empress and winning at life#

Yuan Mingjin: My life has always been smooth sailing.

Yan Xu: My life got smooth sailing too after I found a wife.

[Lazy-fish heroine x career-driven but hopelessly lovesick hero]

The heroine has always been lucky. The hero... is pretty ambitious too.

Theme: People should stay hopeful about life.