Cool, aloof female lead VS all kinds of handsome men
A Jie is an orphan, and a fool with the mind of a ten-year-old child. As if being simple-minded weren’t enough, she has a face too beautiful for a poor person. Fortunately, she was taken in by a village of widowers and spared a terrible fate.
When she was eighteen, A Jie found an injured young man in the mountains.
He had refined features and the looks of an immortal, and possessed a noble air unlike anyone A Jie had ever met.
Grateful for his help, she asked what she could do to repay him. A Jie was a bit of a fool, and after stammering for a long while, she couldn’t think of how to use his kindness to get close to this precious young lady. All she managed to say was that he hadn’t saved her to get a favor in return.
The young man’s expression softened. She said she was one of the Ling sisters, named Ling Siyu, and offered to treat him as a brother. Once she recovered, she would take him home and acknowledge him as her sworn elder brother.
After several days together, A Jie remained muddleheaded, but she knew that although Ling Siyu seemed hard to approach, she was very gentle with him and never looked down on him for being a fool. A Jie thought that such a good person would become his sworn younger sister.
Then one day, A Jie returned home and found Ling Siyu gone.
The room was in disarray. All that remained was the token she had left behind and a few spots of blood.
The uncles in the village of widowers said that everything Ling Siyu had told him was a lie. There wasn’t a single good word in a woman’s mouth. A Jie didn’t believe them. She had been injured, so surely the people who hurt her had taken her away. But Ling Siyu was gone. A Jie was foolish and clumsy with words, and couldn’t argue with them. All she could do was cry in hurt silence.
Sobbing, A Jie tidied the room. When she saw the blood on the floor and remembered that Ling Siyu’s wounds hadn’t fully healed when she disappeared, her heart ached even more. If she wanted to leave, she should at least have waited until she was completely healed. If she didn’t want him, he wouldn’t cling to her.
The more A Jie thought about it, the more worried she became about Ling Siyu’s injuries. She finally resolved to go find her. After all, A Jie was a fool and had never thought about what would happen to him.
He walked and searched, searching and searching, for three years.
At last, he found Ling Siyu.
She had become an elegant young lady, unreachable and even more imposing than she had been three years ago.
A Jie hid in shame, hoping only to see her from afar, but her guards caught him and brought him before her.
She said that the talk of being sworn siblings had just been words, and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
A Jie’s eyes welled up with tears. Then she heard her say, “How about I marry you?”
A Jie stared in a daze. But she had a childhood sweetheart by her side, a confidant to keep her company, a favored courtesan who admired her, and an actor who begged for her affection. Besides, they had been apart for three years. Could she really be a good match?
The candidates include:
A beautiful fool who can lactate
A gentle, proper childhood sweetheart
An alluring young man from a different race
There are more than in the blurb. Fleeting affairs.
Their spoken promise to be siblings doesn’t count. There is no blood relation or ethical relationship between them.
This novel is set in a dynasty where incense culture flourishes, so expect plenty of incense.
Theme: Love yourself before loving someone else
