A prequel to A Gentleman’s Recollections.
The first time they met, all the other noble women scurried away in an attempt to distance themselves from him as much as possible. Only Ye Huai Yang remained rooted to the spot, unable to tear her gaze away from Chu Jing Lan.
The third time they met, he threatened to take her life; and yet, she fearlessly shifted herself closer to him, easily succeeding in planting a full kiss on his lips before sighing in satisfaction – that she is now happy, and would be able to die without regrets.
The fifth time they met, the two of them were forced to hide in the bookshelf. Grabbing the opportunity to cop a feel, she managed to tease him till he felt as though his entire body was alit.
Subsequently, the two of them were finally wed to each other. He wanted to overthrow the Emperor and claim his rightful place, so she accompanied him on his treacherous journey without complaint, diligently removing every obstacle in his way. And, when the critical moment finally arrived, Ye Huai Yang set in place the biggest trap she had ever set in her entire life, and bravely marched to her solitary death.
Chu Jing Lan, who had always been calm and restrained, angrily grabbed hold of her and dragged her back – What did you take me for? Did you think you could just decide to stop teasing me so abruptly after all you’ve done?
[Ebook] [Eng Translation]
I was looking for a novel set in the ancient times when I first came across 贵女撩夫攻略, and, although the beginning of the novel was fairly interesting when our male lead, Chu Jing Lan, first meets our female lead, Ye Huai Yang, and Ye Huai Yang tries her hardest to convince him that she has nothing but his best interests at heart.
However, the novel gradually begins to lose steam after our female lead and male lead begin to fall in love with each other, because a large part of the interactions which made the novel interesting (when the male and female lead were engaging in ‘mind games’ with each other) in the first place were removed, and the interactions with the common enemy / big bad just didn’t match up in terms of intensity or tension. As such, despite its generally interesting premise, the novel ultimately falls short in terms of execution, and ends up meandering along the usual plots commonly seen in “sweet novels” (where the male and female leads easily overcome all obstacles in their path, and gallop towards their happily ever after).