Chapter 1 The Crown Prince's Wife from Another Race
The setting sun casts a golden glow, and the evening clouds merge like jade. Within Yunzhou City, pedestrians hurry home.
Inside the Huan Prince's residence, a large group of servants knelt, holding their breath and listening intently to the reprimands from Princess Ying.
"Such a big person, and you can't even take care of him properly? What are you all good for?"
The Huan Prince's mansion was vast, but upon closer inspection, it was not difficult to discover that those kneeling before the Princess Consort were all from the courtyard of Huan Prince's heir, Xiao Mingzhang, and his wife, Mu Yunzhu.
The servants, who had been reprimanded, dared not breathe and lowered their heads even more respectfully and nervously.
Ying's eyes were cold and sharp as she swept over the group of people, but it was clear that her anger was not going to stop there.
She opened her mouth, about to lash out again, when Cuilan, the nanny who had been by her side since her marriage, finally came in from outside. She quickly walked to her side and whispered, "Your Highness, the person is almost back!"
Ying's brow twitched.
Cui Lan continued, "According to the gatekeeper, the Crown Princess left the gate around noon, and the Cui family's carriage came to pick her up. I went to inquire, and it is true that Miss Cui went out of the city for a spring outing with several young ladies from the Yu and Zhou families in the afternoon. Our Crown Princess was also there, and the carriages of all the families are already on their way back to the city."
This news was like a timely rain, quelling the impending raging fury that people were about to face.
Ying scoffed, "She certainly knows how to play the game."
With the person's whereabouts known, there was no longer a rush to punish the servants.
However, she didn't intend to wake people up quickly.
She sat there in the hall, quietly gazing in the direction from which the front hall had come.
The Huan Prince's mansion fell silent once more, utterly still.
A quarter of an hour later, just as Cuilan had said, a carriage stopped outside the Prince's Mansion. Immediately afterwards, a woman in a deep blue dress appeared in everyone's sight.
Although the woman was dressed in the attire of a Central Plains person, she had a face with a strong exotic flair. The light powder on her cheeks could not cover her eyes, which were much larger than those of ordinary people, nor could it cover her high nose bridge and brow bone, nor could it cover her bright lips. As she strode forward, the sunset glow shone on her body, dazzling and scorching. Even the fluttering eyelashes on her brows and eyes resembled a pair of lively black-tailed butterflies, lifelike.
Who is this but Mu Yunzhu, the Crown Princess whom everyone in the Huan Prince's Mansion has been eagerly awaiting?
"Mother..."
As soon as Mu Yunzhu stepped into the hall, she wanted to bow to Ying Shi, but she was surprised to see that the hall was full of kneeling servants. Before her spine had fully bent down, she quickly straightened up again.
"What is Mother doing?" She recognized that these were all people from her own courtyard, and her expression became even more bewildered.
"Nothing." After a full quarter of an hour, Ying's patience had been almost completely worn away. She ignored the person's question and asked only, "Where did you go this afternoon?"
"I went out of the city to climb the mountain with Jing Si and Ran Zhi." Yun Zhu answered fluently in her fairly fluent Central Plains dialect.
Upon hearing this, Madam Ying frowned and said, "On the day the Prince and Mingzhang left home, I told you not to go out unless necessary. What's the big deal about mountain climbing? Why did you have to go out without telling me?"
"But I didn't hide it from my mother..."
In just a few words, Yunzhu understood that all the servants in the room were being held accountable because of her. She felt a mixture of absurdity and injustice.
Ying pressed further, "When did you explain this to me?"
Yunzhu then argued confidently, "The day before yesterday, Ming'an was also there. At that time, Ming'an was talking to Mother about going to Yu County, so I also told Mother. Coincidentally, Jingsi also asked me to go out that day, and Mother clearly agreed to both."
"I..." Ying was about to retort, but upon further thought, she suddenly recalled what Mu Yunzhu had said—
Xiao Ming'an is her youngest daughter. A few days ago, she kept nagging to go to Yu County with her best friends to see the scenery. She couldn't refuse her, so she agreed. At that time, she did hear Mu Yunzhu mention once that Yu Jingsi and Cui Ranzhi had invited her out, but she really couldn't remember whether she had agreed to it.
Ying was speechless for a moment. After a while, she glared at Yunzhu and said, "You should have told me before you left. You made me worry about you all afternoon for nothing!"
Are you worried about her? Or are you worried that she might do something detrimental to the Huan Prince's Mansion?
Yunzhu remained noncommittal, her dissatisfaction almost twisting into a pretzel, yet she knew that at this point, Ying Shi didn't really have much temper left to vent.
She then said, "Mother is right. I didn't think things through this time. Next time, even if Mother agrees to let me go out, I will still inform Mother before I leave."
Sure enough, Ying's expression improved considerably after hearing her words.
Taking advantage of the momentum, Yunzhu stepped forward and personally poured a cup of tea for Ying, handing it to her.
Ying took the tea and said, "It's not that I'm watching you on purpose, but as you know, the Prince and Mingzhang are both away from Yunzhou, and Ming'an is playful. I have to manage the entire Prince's mansion by myself. You're not from Yunzhou and you're unfamiliar with this place. If something happens to you under my nose, how am I supposed to explain it to Mingzhang when he comes back?"
Her words implied that everything she did today was for her own good.
Yunzhu smiled. If she hadn't mentioned Xiao Mingzhang so many times, she probably wouldn't have been able to hold back any longer.
Xiao Mingzhang...
Fine, I'll just have to endure it for his sake for a little longer.
Yunzhu obediently replied, "Yes, Mother Consort did it for my own good, I really know I was wrong."
She was nice.
Then Ying Shi had no reason to criticize her anymore.
She took out a letter from the table and handed it to Yunzhu: "This is a letter Mingzhang sent back home today. He said that he will be able to return to Yunzhou with the Prince in about two days. You should have nowhere else to go for the next two days, right? Then you should rest well at home and wait for them to return."
Is Xiao Mingzhang coming back?
Yunzhu took the letter from home and looked at Ying Shi in disbelief.
Ying observed her expression. Her husband had been gone for three months and was finally coming back. Yunzhu's reaction was exactly what she had expected.
However, Mingzhang originally thought that he wouldn't care much about this woman from another race, but unexpectedly, their relationship has actually been quite good over the past two years.
Watching Yunzhu's expression gradually change from surprise to joy, Ying Shi decided to ignore it and said, "Alright, there's nothing else. You've been climbing the mountain all afternoon, so go back and rest."
"Yes, then I shall take my leave."
Having received Xiao Mingzhang's letter, Yunzhu had no desire to stay by Ying's side any longer and turned to leave.
But when she turned back and saw the servants still kneeling in the hall, she turned back again and reminded Ying: "Mother..."
Ying glanced at Yunzhu and waved her hand, allowing Yunzhu to safely return to the courtyard with all the servants.
—
By the time they returned to the courtyard, it was already completely dark and quiet. The returning servants busied themselves lighting candles, serving tea and water, and attending to their mistress.
Yunzhu ignored their busy work and, facing the flickering candlelight, hurriedly opened Xiao Mingzhang's family letter.
When she saw the letter from home indeed saying she would return home in two days, she raised her eyebrows slightly and smiled radiantly.
“The princess’s temper has become better and better over the years.” The maid Ayan had been by Yunzhu’s side the whole time. Seeing that Yunzhu forgot the grievances she had just suffered as soon as she saw Xiao Mingzhang’s letter, she couldn’t help but have a lot of things to say and couldn’t hold back.
Yunzhu looked up and saw that her lips were now pouting so much that they could hang a long pot on them. She complained, "The prince and the heir have been away from home for three months. In these three months, the princess has not allowed us to go out even once. When we finally manage to go out, she clearly agreed to it herself, but then she turned around and started to criticize us. Everyone knows what she's up to!"
"...Then tell me, what is she planning?" Yunzhu asked knowingly.
"Of course..."
Ayan wanted to stand up for her master, but she was afraid of hurting Yunzhu's feelings if she didn't speak up.
Yunzhu chuckled and grabbed Ayan's hand.
Mu Yunzhu married into the Huan Prince's mansion two years ago.
Although she has a name that sounds like that of someone from the Central Plains, Mu Yunzhu is not from the Central Plains.
She was the daughter of a barbarian king in the Western Regions, and she had a very beautiful name in the Western Regions: Zumuretti, which means precious emerald.
She was the apple of the eye of the King of the Western Regions, a treasure that the entire Western Regions were proud of.
Originally, Yunzhu thought that she should grow freely in the wilderness that belonged to her for the rest of her life. However, two years ago, her father wanted to arrange a marriage between his wife and the emperor of the Central Plains. She was the only princess of marriageable age. With a royal decree, she was married off to the Central Plains and became the heir apparent of the Prince of Huan of Yunzhou.
As the Crown Prince's consort, one would expect her to have a good position, even though her status as a princess was of little use in the Central Plains. However, this was not the case.
Prince Huan was the fifth son of the emperor of the Central Plains, in the prime of his life, at the height of his power. In recent years, the emperor had not appointed a crown prince, and although there were often accusations of favoring his younger son, Prince Yi, he ultimately did not allow him to directly enter the Eastern Palace. This meant that each of his sons still had the potential to vie for the throne.
The entire Huanwang Mansion, which was originally ambitious and united in its pursuit of the throne, was thrown into complete disarray by her arrival.
Because she was a princess from the Western Regions.
Throughout the thousands of years of history in the Central Plains, there has never been a precedent of a woman from the Western Regions sitting on the throne of empress. The emperor's order for the Prince Huan's Mansion to marry a princess from the Western Regions is a blatant warning to them that the throne will no longer be related to the Prince Huan's Mansion.
Although this matter had nothing to do with her, the marriage was not what she wanted, and marrying into the Huan Prince's mansion was not her original intention, she was still the princess consort from the Western Regions. Therefore, after Yunzhu arrived in Yunzhou, her life was not very satisfactory.
Unable to be a strong contender for the throne, the women of the Huan Prince's mansion, led by Lady Ying, had many complaints about her; needless to say, the ministers in Yunzhou who were originally ambitious and hoped that their lord could enter the Eastern Palace in Jinling also harbored resentment towards her.
If it weren't for the fact that Prince Huan's heir, Xiao Mingzhang, was a reasonably decent person, and that she later made several close friends through chance encounters, her life in Yunzhou would have been incredibly difficult.
"Okay, Ayan, I know you're thinking of me, but Xiao Mingzhang will be back soon, and then we'll be able to get through this. Let's not worry about all these troubles anymore, okay?"
"But……"
Ayan didn't know how her princess could endure such grievances. In her opinion, no matter how good Xiao Mingzhang was to her, her princess shouldn't have to suffer in such a place.
They've been in Yunzhou for two years, a full two years. They've done everything they could, but the people in the Prince's mansion are still the same. When Xiao Mingzhang is around, it's alright, but when he's not, they all show their true colors, not treating them as their own people, always on guard and watching them, as if they were spies sent from the Western Regions.
She had never seen such stingy nobles on the grasslands!
Yunzhu had said what she needed to say. Seeing that Ayan was still sulking, she pinched her nose and held up the letter, saying, "Alright, come and take a good look at this family letter with me. We agreed to learn the Central Plains characters together. I've slacked off quite a bit these past few months while Xiao Mingzhang was away. Have you slacked off too? Quickly help me see if you can still recognize these characters."
Ayan reluctantly took the letter from Yunzhu's hand.
The two studied it together for a while before Ayan mumbled, "It does seem to say... we'll be home in two days?"
Yunzhu nodded solemnly. Although she didn't recognize many characters, she had more or less understood Xiao Mingzhang's letter.
"Then tell me, what should I prepare for him? To celebrate his return?" she asked with great interest.
Ayan grumbled discontentedly, "The young master is going to Jinling this time. I've heard that Jinling is a prosperous city, and even the floor tiles in the palace are made of jade. You've suffered so much at home, the young master should be preparing something for you to bring back!"
Yunzhu suddenly realized that what Ayan said made a lot of sense.
"Great!" she said excitedly, putting away the letter and looking forward to it. "Then I'll wait for him to bring back a bunch of gold and silver treasures for me!"
A note from the author:
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Long time no see, everyone! I've finally found the time to come back and start writing again!
After much thought, I've decided to start a story with a marriage-of-convenience-to-love-later and cremation-themed plot to adjust my writing style and mood. Since it's a cremation-themed story, the male lead will likely have many flaws in the early stages that are open to criticism. Those who enjoy this genre can check it out, and those who don't should absolutely not force themselves. Most importantly! You can comment on the characters, but please don't take it out on the author. While I'm not overly sensitive, I can't handle too much criticism. [Chin resting on chin][Chin resting on chin][Heartbroken][Heartbroken][Heartbroken]
Enjoy reading!
—This is a pre-order for my next novel. If you're interested, please add it to your favorites!—
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess were born to be at odds.
#Ruthless Crown Princess x Doting Crown Prince
Wang Luyi, the fourth daughter of the Prime Minister's family, was a woman of noble birth, exceptionally beautiful, and a role model for all the noble ladies in the capital.
At the age of eighteen, she was personally chosen by the Empress to be the Crown Princess of the Eastern Palace.
Everyone said it was a perfect match, but only Crown Prince Xu Yuxing knew the truth: What a load of rubbish! Miss Wang has been a shrew and willful woman since she was a child, not at all as gentle as the outside world says. If his mother arranged this marriage for him, he's probably doomed!
—
From a young age, Wang Luyi aspired to be a model of a proper lady from a prominent family and to become the most outstanding noblewoman in the capital.
Even though she had been practicing martial arts with her master since childhood, she always pretended to be weak in front of others; even though she couldn't stand many things, she always pretended to be calm and gentle in front of others.
No one knew her true methods, no one knew her decisiveness and shrewishness. Her disguise was so perfect that she fooled almost the entire capital, except for one person—
After the marriage, Wang Luyi held a feather duster in her hand and faced the Crown Prince, who was clinging to the bedpost. Her almond-shaped eyes were smiling gently, but the words that came out of her mouth were cold and terrifying: "Your Highness, should I beat you and then send you to study, or will you go to study directly?"
—
When they first got married, Crown Prince Xu Yuxing wished he could stay far away from his Crown Princess every day, not wanting this fake smiling tiger to get close to him.
But later, even he himself couldn't have imagined that he would take the Crown Princess's hand, squeeze in front of her, and say, "Yuan Yuan, please take care of me, please take care of me!"
#Super Sweet Romance
#YuanYuan is the female lead's nickname
The copy was written on August 18, 2025.
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