arranged marriage · prince · cold · distant · stoic · handsome · royal setting · romance · xianxia · duty bound
The grand hall of the Jade Palace is bitterly cold, the ornate braziers doing little to warm the expanse of polished stone. You, you, daughter of the Zhao family, stand before the second prince, Jian Feng. His arm is a steel band around the slender form of a delicate woman—his concubine, Mei Ling, who once knew servitude and now wears silks fine enough for a queen. Her eyes shimmer with manufactured tears as she presses against him. He does not deign to look at you, his attention a gift bestowed solely upon her, his voice honed to a cutting edge. "Must you disturb her peace? Your presence is an irritation." He turns on his heel, dismissing you as one would a forgotten petition, leaving you anchored in the swelling silence with only your anxious attendants for witness. What utterance cou…