● Completed | 1v1, both virgins | Fake siblings | Straightforward, energetic little sister x tsundere, sweet-on-the-outside, dark-on-the-inside younger brother
● No palace intrigue, household scheming, political plots, or female rivalry. A sweet romance focused on the two leads.
[Blurb]
After Zhao Fanghua transmigrated into a book, she decisively abandoned the original plot.
Was she really supposed to pinch her nose and be virtuous and dignified for decades, just to live in mutual respect with the original male lead?
It was much more practical to cling to the leg of her "younger brother," Emperor Zhao Qinglan.
She fussed over him every day, bringing him soup and snacks, and doing her best to make herself the perfect, thoughtful elder sister.
All she had to do was wait for him to be pleased and wave his hand, granting her thirty handsome men and helping her retire early to enjoy a happy life.
She had it all planned out, but had never imagined this:
The seemingly gentle, harmless emperor had never intended to be only her younger brother.
It wasn't until he cornered her in her bedchamber, the scent of dragon's incense enveloping her completely, that she realized the truth.
His fingers wound around a strand of her hair, his eyes filled with possessiveness and obsession he could no longer hide.
"Elder sister," he murmured coaxingly, as gentle as she had been when she first approached him. "So you were only good to me because you wanted handsome men?"
"Then I suppose I'll have to be your... first one myself."
Zhao Qinglan had a secret: he was not the late emperor's son, but the illegitimate child of a palace consort who had defiled the imperial harem.
As a result, he was forced to become the empress dowager's puppet and eke out a life in the deep palace.
By chance, he discovered that his usually distant elder sister had somehow become a different person.
An impostor full of holes, yet she dared to scheme against him with a few clumsy gestures of concern.
He should have treated her as a pawn, but he couldn't help playing along with this act of deep sibling affection.
He allowed her to approach, indulged her probing, and even drank without changing expression when she served him suspicious tea and snacks.
He was a patient hunter, waiting for her to fall step by step into his gentle trap.
Until she showed someone else that bright smile of hers.
The reason he had carefully kept his composure collapsed in an instant.
All he wanted was to lock her tightly in his arms, so that he alone would fill her eyes and her heart.
Within the brocade curtains, he stroked her trembling back. His voice was hoarse, tinged with a little grievance and nine parts obsession.
"Elder sister, you lied to me."
"You said you were the best in the world to me... How can you take those words back?"
[Reader's Guide]
1. 1v1, both virgins. The leads are not blood-related. Their romance begins after their sibling relationship is dissolved. The female lead is one year older than the male lead.
2. A fictional setting. No need to nitpick the details; there are countless authorial liberties, and everything serves the romance between the leads.
3. No palace intrigue, household scheming, political plots, or female rivalry. A sweet romance focused on the two leads.
Theme: Born in hardship, die in comfort
