LeslyAnne

You can read it here: https://mydramanovel.com/

-The FL in the novel is waaaaaaay too delicate to be a general, that's why I said the drama will be very different. I mean, in the novel, she's so weak she can only lift a bow with both hands.
-The FL is the perfect example of a well-behaved, educated rich lady of the capital. She's into fashion, knows how to run a house as a future official wife, likes shopping and she's well-versed in social etiquette. Even when she's sometimes entitled, she's a good friend, daughter and master and she doesn't bully others to feel superior. Spoiled but not rotten.
-The FL is betrothed to another at the start of the novel, their engagement was arranged, it wasn't for love, and her fiancé cheated on her so their engagement didn't last many chapters. The ML helped to break it.
-The FL's family is good, in the novel they weren't runied. In the last chapters, it was a plan to frame her family but it was solved quickly.
-The ML is a prince, son of the former emperor, he decided to give the throne to his cousin so now he's a renowned general. He was never interested in romance or marriage but the emperor (his cousin) is wary of the FL's father (he holds military power) so the ML marries her, in part to be close to her father.
-The ML is so stoic, and I mean it, my boy rarely talks and he had to learn how to praise the FL and talk sweetly to her. This doesn't mean he was totally indifferent to her, but their personalities are very different.
-They get married in chapter 32 of 120, so they are married for the mayority of the story and never get divorced.
-Their romance was kinda slow, emotionally speaking because they were very sexually active since day 1.
-There's no love triangle, she never liked someone before and neither did he. Also, the emperor doesn't force him to accept another woman for the sake of the country (as usually authors write in this kind of stories).

I just finished the novel, it wasn't perfect and at times I didn't like the ML or the FL but I enjoyed it very much, low angst, cute side couples, strong and intelligent ML, intelligent FL and a bit of action. Now, reading the summary looks like the drama will be very different than the novel but I'm still interested.
Some spoilers of the novel:

Go boy ✨

Yes, I liked Chef Hua too, it's a hidden gem c:

Okay, I maybe used the word p*do wrong (to me, to feel anything romantic or sexual for an underage person, is p*do), but grooming is not better (sorry for your classmates, that's grooming).
How do you call it when a 26-year-old man feels attraction towards a 15-year-old girl who looks "pure and innocent", then?

"Older men getting turn on by teenagers might be morally wrong for many reasons, but female teenagers at the age of 14-15 already have gone through puberty and have womanly bodies."
I won't say it wasn't the case back then (I'm not a history specialist), but mostly, men wanted young brides, not mature ones, then they would've chosen young women of 18 or 20, not the ones of 14 or 15.
I'm not trying to be superior or anything, I understand how things worked in the past, we women were (and still are) repressed, it was how life went, sadly, but for my entertainment I prefer not to read it or I can grab a history book.
My problem is with this specific age gap in the novel, not with all the cnovels. I couldn't ignore that she was young, that was the issue, the author constantly said how young she was compared to him. In other words, their ages were part of the plot, and that's something I don't like.
In my opinion, if the authors can change things in their novels that in the past wouldn't have happened or would be frowned upon, why they can't change the uncomfortable age gaps?

I get it, I'm not saying it because I'm not familiar with history, as I said, it was a common practice (and still is, unfortunately) in many countries, but that doesn't mean it's comfortable to read.
It's a fictional story, if the authors can write, for example, that the ML never got married again and only had the FL as his wife when it was normal and even encouraged to have concubines for status and power, they can change their age, it's not a history book, just another romantic story. I mean, they don't need to make her 20 (I would like that) but I think 14, 15 or even 16 is creepy when the ML is five or more years older. She may not act childlike but she looks like one and it's so uncomfortable to read the ML having sexual desires for her.
What I'm saying is, even when is historically accurate, I can't accept it, because its undertones are p*do culture. What's wrong with 20-year-old women?
It was the men who decided everything, not us, so if they said a 15-year-old was suitable for marriage, it was done.
Sorry, this topic is a sensitive spot because something similar happened to my great-grandma.
But I know I'm not going to win this so I'll just overlook it as much as possible. 🙃

I was reading the novel out of curiosity when I saw Lay as the ML.
What a waste of time, to me it was confusing, the plot was kinda rushed and at the same time slow, I didn't like ML's personality, he was a contradiction and he didn't know how to communicate. The FL's personality was sometimes bold and then shy, it felt like she was two different people and that was anticlimactic while reading. I stopped at chapter 30.

This sounds kinda Shining for one thing, I just hope this one doesn't have the same ending.

Thank you so much! Maybe I'll give the novel a second chance then c:

Someone who had read the novel that could tell me if this has a love triangle. I mean, he's a prince and she's from a fallen house, their romance will be considered forbidden, and in many cases, he is betrothed without his consent to a "more suitable" lady, I want to save myself the trouble while reading the novel.
I ask because in NU there is a tag with "love triangles".

Thank you so much! I think I can overlook their age if the author doesn't remind me every chapter that she's young, because, as you said, they usually don't act very childlike or naive, so it's easy to make her older in my head.

LOL, then I need to change my pfp.
Believe me, when I read he was 26 I was baffled but curious, so I kept reading hoping for a time skip or something but not, that's why I stopped.
I think my limit is 15, but even with that age I'm not comfortable reading if he's 20, maybe if he's 18... I'm new in the cnovel world, so I didn't know it was so common to have underage FLs and MLs in their 20s or more 🙃.
If you have some recs of historical romance cnovels, I'll appreciated.

Yes! I mean, I understand it was normal to marry very young girls at that time, it happened (and still happens) in many countries. However, this is fiction, I think they don't need to be strict with that fact unless they are portraying some historical figure, otherwise, the story doesn't need an underage FL having a love story with a much older ML to work, that's not enjoyable, it feels wrong.

Yes! much better

-She was 14 and he was 26 when they first met, and from that day on he's pursuing her.
-They get married when she's 15.

I wouldn't have minded the age gap, but she's a teenager and he's a grow-ass man.
Yes, historically that's how things went on, but that doesn't mean that it's right, he's a p*do basically (obviously, in the novel is romanticized).
Maybe I could've overlooked it if they didn't repeatedly highlight her age and his age, making reading so uncomfortable I couldn't leave that fact alone. For example, I recently read Chasing Jade, the mains have a 4-year age gap, she's 16 and he's 20, still very wrong but at least I could ignore it and make her 18 in my head, in this novel I couldn't, the author didn't let me.
That's why I only read half of the novel, the plot is nothing new but I was entertained, never bored, just uneasy, had both been adults o both being teenagers, this would've been a different outcome.

Even  though I didn't finish the novel I still want to watch the drama, I just hope they change their ages.
Here some spoilers of the novel:

I just finished the novel, I can't wait!

Does the ML do that in the novel?!!! My god, I really hope the drama will be like a parallel universe, something like Joy of life, I read that in the novel the ML has several concubines plus the FL, but in the drama, he only loves the FL and doesn't fall in love with the other girls.

I love LYN so I want to watch it but some people said that in the novel the ML is a huge assh*le the majority of the story. I hope they change this in the drama, I'm so fed up with MLs treating FLs like trash, I mean, I don't expect him to be a green flag, but at least that he won't be an assh*le, for example, 30 of 36 episodes 🙃.