Prisoner of Beauty- Novel Summary 1

SPOILER WARNING: The novel has some difference in timelines and story setups compared to the drama so there might be spoilers so please only read on if you are the sort that doesn’t mind spoilers.

I wanted to try something new and do ten chapter summaries…but if that gets to be too tedious then I might have to change the format so don’t get too attached to this new format just yet.

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Chapter 1-10

• Our heroine Xiao Qiao woke up from a reoccurring nightmare she has been having since her soul from the modern world had entered into the 12 year old body of Qiao Man two years ago. The reoccurring nightmare is actually the the short 20 year life of Qiao Man from her past life. In the nightmare/past life, Qiao Man marries her childhood sweetheart Liu Yan. Liu Yan eventually became the emperor and Qiao Man his empress. However, Liu Yan was no match to our hero and decides to kill all of his royal concubines and his empress himself before Wei Shao (our hero) and his army could enter into the palace. In Xiao Qiao’s nightmare, she sees Liu Yan orders his men to slaughter his concubines, some of them as young as 13 years old. The nightmare ends with Qiao Man willingly stands there as Liu Yan plunged a sword through her heart.
• Xiao Qiao not only has the memory of Qiao Man’s ending but she also know the ending of the other family members. In the past life, Qiao Man’s cousin- Qiao Fan, marries Wei Shao as her family wished but lived like a ghost in Wei Shao’s household. When Wei Shao became the emperor, Qian Fan loses her position as his wife and she eventually killed herself. Unbeknownst to her family, Qian Fan was actually in love with a lowly horse slave (Bi Zhi) in the Qiao manor but she hid her own heartbreak and married Wei Shao anyway. After her marriage, Bi Zhi disappeared from Qiao manor and resurfaced later as a fierce robber/turned self appointed general. The fierce general was well known for having one eye that was green in color…just like the horse slave Bi Zhi. This fierce general was a throne in our hero’s side as he willingly joined his force with Liu Yan’s side. If it wasn’t for this green eyed general, our hero could’ve realized all his conquering dream two whole years earlier. When Wei Shao was about to defeat all his enemies, this green eyed general suddenly disappeared. Furious, Wei Shao ordered his men to search for him high and low. Wei Shao rushed to his family’s cemetery in a hurry when there were reports of sighting the green-eyed general appearing there, but found none of his family graves disturbed. It wasn’t until much later they discovered our heroine’s cousin’s grave, which was not allowed to be buried on the Wei family plot, was empty. The green-eyed general eventually buried himself with Qian Fan.
• In Xiao Qiao’s memory, Qian Fan’s sacrifice was for nothing since the Qiao clan still got wiped out anyway. Not wanting Qian Fan to sacrifice herself to such a tragic fate for nothing, Xiao Qiao convinced Qian Fan that she no longer wanted to marry Liu Yan but would rather marry Wei Shao who could give her status and glory. Grateful to Xiao Qiao, Bi Zhi vowed to her that in the future if she wants him to do anything, she only has to say the word.
• Despite what she said to her cousin, Xiao Qiao actually had no intention of marrying Wei Shao but was hoping she would have time to figure out a way to get her uncle to give up on the marriage alliance. Much to our heroine’s dismay, time was not on her side and she eventually trapping herself into the marriage she had just got her cousin out of.
• Xiao Qiao’s father dots on her and at first refused to consider his brother’s plea to marry his daughter to Wei Shao but eventually relents when his brother kneels down to beg him and pleas on behalf of the their people’s lives.
• Like in the drama, the Xiao clan and the Wei clan have been feuding ever since our heroine’s grandfather failed to send reinforcement to the Wei clan as he had promised. In the drama, they kinda sugar coated a bit suggesting that perhaps the grandfather didn’t want to his own people to die. However, in the novel, it was pretty apparent that our heroine’s father was actually hoping he could use someone’s hand to wipe out the Wei clan. Xiao Qiao’s father had never been able to get an answer from his own father if he had purposefully not send help to the Wei Clan. On the day of Xiao Qiao’s marriage, Daddy Qiao finally asked his brother about it and while his brother tried to avoid the question, it was obvious that he knew their dad had done it on purpose.
• Xiao Qiao’s marriage carriage was escorted to meet Wei Shao in a city that his army was based at. After coming back from a fierce battle, Wei Shao wasted no time and ordered the marriage ceremony to be held the very next day. From the marriage ceremony to the wedding night, it was obvious Wei Shao had no intention of actually treating Xiao Qiao as his wife and in fact, gave the order to send Xiao Qiao off, back to his clan home the very next day after their wedding.
• Xiao Qiao knows from the Qiao Man’s past memory that Wei Shao never touched Qiao Fan during their marriage so was not surprised when Wei Shao also didn’t touch her on their wedding night. From Qian Man’s past memory, not only did Wei Shao not touched Qiao Fan but by the time he became the emperor, there was only one known woman that he supposedly doted on.

Chapter 11-20

• Persuaded by Liu Yan (hero’s advisor) that he should at least put on an act for the people’s sake, Wei Shao escorted Xiao Qiao’s carriage personally to the city gate- accompanied by the cheering of the people who was much impressed by Xiao Qiao’s beauty.
• Sent on the road with only a team of soldiers led by Wei Shao’s very reluctant subordinate Wei Liang for protection, Xiao Qiao was dismayed when her ex-fiancé, Liu Yan suddenly showed up to “rescue her”. The “memory” of how Liu Yan plunged a sword through Qiao Man’s heart still vivid in her mind, our heroine had no interest in getting involved with Liu Yan…plus she was not the real Qiao Man who was in love with Liu Yan.
• Stunned and furious when Xiao Qiao refused to leave with him, Liu Yan was just turning a bit creepy when another man (Chen Rui) showed up to make the situation much worse for our heroine. Chen Rui of Chen clan was well known for his ruthlessness and taste for pretty women. Having long been jealous of our hero’s fame, Chen Rui was estatic when he found out about Liu Yan’s plan and jumped on the chance to kidnap Wei Shao’s woman. No match to Chen Rui, Liu Yan was left howling in anger and issuing empty threats as Chen Rui rode off with Xiao Qiao.
• Utterly smitten when he finally set eyes on Xiao Qiao, Chen Rui backed off immediately when our heroine threated to kill herself if he dared to do anything to her. Quite confident of his skills in bed, Chen Rui was convinced once he married Xiao Qiao the next day then she would surely lose her heart to him. Unfortunately for Chen Rui, our hero’s troops were extremely fast and by the next night, before Chen Rui could get to his wedding night, Wei Shao’s troop was already at the city gate.
• Equally confident that he can beat Wei Shao, Chen Rui tied Xiao Qiao up and assured her that he will be back once he killed our hero. Apparently, Chen Rui’s self confidence was sorely misplaced and the battle did not go in his favor. Abandoning his uncle (the actual ruler of the city) in the middle of the battle, Chen Rui figured it was time to run away but he was still fully intending to take Xiao Qiao with him. Belatedly remembering Xiao Qiao at the same time, Chen Rui’s uncle orders his man to bring Xiao Qiao to the city wall. Hearing his uncle’s order, Chen Rui has a shouting match with his uncle. While the uncle and nephew was busy infighting, a massive fire broke towarded the direction of the grain storage.
• Still unwilling to give up on his beauty, Chen Rui ran back to Xiao Qiao’s room only to see it in gulf in flame. Devestated, Chen Rui was about to go kill Wei Shao in anger…until he heard Wei Shao’s troop coming his way and quickly ran away by climbing the wall of the outhouse. (Chen Rui was never caught so I am assuming he is showing up later.)
• His expression stony when his men informed him that Xiao Qiao likely died in a fire, Wei Shao gave the order to wipe out the Chen clan. Dismayed, Gongsun Yan was about to tell Wei Shao what a bad idea that was when our hero immediately cut him off by saying “My mind has been made up.” Just when Gongsun Yan was trying to gather up the courage to say something more, a soldier came runnng up to report that our heroine had been found safe. Overjoyed, Gongsun Yan immediately report to Wei Shao that while Xiao Qiao’s wrist was burned but she was otherwise safe. Jumping on the chance to advise Wei Shao against wiping the Chen clan out again, Gongsun Yan was much relieved when our hero doesn’t say anything more. Pressing his luck, Gongsun Yan suggested that Wei Shao should go check on his wife, but Wei Shao just ordered a physician to be sent to her and to make sure that nothing else happened to her.
• That night, due to the pain of her burns, our heroine cried herself to sleep. Later, in the quiet of the night, Wei Shao showed up by Xiao Qiao’s bed. Feeling something seemed off in the manner Xiao Qiao was kidnapped by Chen Rui, Wei Shao had planned on asking Xiao Qiao about it but promptly changed his mind when he saw our heroine’s beautiful but tear stained sleeping face.
• Thanks to this unexpected kidnapping, Wei Shao decided to keep Xiao Qiao with him until it was time to go home to the city of Yu Yan for his grandmother’s birthday.
• The next day, just when Xiao Qiao had convinced herself that since Wei Shao didn’t ask about Liu Yan then it would be better to leave that piece of information out, an angry Wei Shao came charging into her room while she was in the middle of taking a bath. Obviously furious, Wei Shao demanded to know if Xiao Qiao knows that in order to rescue her, how many soldiers died or were badly hurt? Forcing her racing heart to calm down, Xiao Qiao first got Wei Shao’s permission to get dressed then procedded to give him facts regarding what happened. Wei Shao accused the Wei clan of disrespecting him by arranging a marriage with a woman how was already in love with someone else. Xiao Qiao calmly explained that while she did spend time with Liu Yan when they were young, but it has been many years since they have seen each other. To further prove her words, Xiao Qiao pointed out that Liu Yan had come to her house earlier in the year for her father’s birthday celebration but she had not meet with him at that time. Wei Shao then demands to know why Xiao Qiao hadn’t told her about Liu Yan intercepting her before. Xiao Qiao replied matter of factly that she knows Wei Shao doesn’t like her presence and thus has made himself quiet scarce so she turely had no chance to tell him.
• A bit puzzled why all his anger seemed to have melted away as Xiao Qiao calmly answered each of his questions, Wei Shao was a bit flustered when Xiao Qiao tearfully apologized for causing his soldiers harm and offered that if Wei Shao truely can’t stand her then he can divorce her and send her away. His mind belatedly processing the view of her in the bathtub when he had angrily charged in just now, a faint sense of regret creeped into Wei Shao’s heart. Finally feeling apologetic for scaring her, Wei Shao gruffly muttered “Why are you thinking these nonsense? Have I mentioned anything about divorcing you and sending you back?”
• Half a month later, Xiao Qiao finally made it back to our hero’s home in Yu Yan City. On the day they arrived, Mama Wei wasn’t home because she was at a socery temple. From our hero’s frown upon hearing the news, it was obvious he didn’t approve of his mother’s patronage to such things but haven’t found a way to stop his mother.
• Xiao Qiao was led to Wei Shao’s bedroom. Guessing from what Qiao Man’s knowledge of her cousin’s married life with Wei Shao, Xiao Qiao fully expected that Wei Shao would refuse to live in the same room as her. Knowing full well that this would make her life in the Wei manor that much harder but figuring there is nothing she could do about it, Xiao Qiao have her maids gathered the few clothing that Wei Shao had in the room.
• Mama Wei has a niece with her by the name of Zheng Chu Yu that she doted on, especailly after the sorceress from the temple told her that her neice bring her good luck.
• Mama Wei had been trying to get Wei Shao to marry her neice for quite a long time but each time our hero had flat out refused. From the mother and son’s arguement, we find out that there was a girl by the last name of Su that Mama Wei wondered if her son was still hung up on.
• As expected, Mama Wei hates Xiao Qiao but out of fear of her mother-in-law who actually made this marriage happen, she couldn’t stop her son from marrying our heroine. Despite knowing that it was unlikely she would be able to gain favor with her mother-in-law, Xiao Qiao was nonetheless shocked when Mama Wei looked at her with so much hatred in her eyes that it looked like she was going to jump up and take a bite out of her flash. When Xiao Qiao knelt and held up a tea up for Mama Wei, she refused to accept it until Xiao Qiao’s arm started to tremble. The standoff was cut short when Wei Shao took the cup from Xiao Qiao and put in on the table by his mother.
• Back in her room alone, Xiao Qiao thought of what our cousin’s life must have been in the previous life and what hopelessness must have driven her to take her own life, our heroine was glad that she was at least able to save her cousin from such tragic fate.
• Much to Xiao Qiao’s surprise, later that night, Wei Shao showed up in the bedroom with no intention of leaving. Sheepish when Wei Shao looked at pointly at his pile of clothing the maid had put to the side, Xiao Qiao try to explain as nonchaltently as she could that she was just trying to air the clothing out and make sure there were no bugs. Her voice getting softer and softer under Wei Shao’s stare, Xiao Qiao’s voice eventually trailed off. “Put it back. I will be living here from now on!” Wei Shao said before he turned and left to take a bath.

Chapter 21-30 (Unfinished, up to about chapter 25)

• By the time Wei Shao came back into the room, freshly out from his bath, all of his clothes had been put back in their original position. Among his items, there was a box that had also been put back. Wei Shao had already gotten in bed, but seemingly remembering something, he got up again, took the box (that had a secret lock of some sort on it), and asked Xiao Qiao with his back to her if she had opened the box. Xiao Qiao answered that she had not personally touched any of his things, including that box. Wei Shao put the box back and warned her not to touch his things. Xiao Qiao promptly promised that she won’t touch any of his things. 
• Wei Shao lay back down and left Xiao Qiao in a quandary of trying to figure out where she was supposed to sleep until he abruptly asked, “What are you doing still standing around?” Realizing he really meant for them to sleep in the same bed, Xiao Qiao carefully climbed into bed and made sure not to touch Wei Shao at all. Just when Xiao Qiao was slowly getting her body to relax, Wei Shao suddenly leaped out of bed, grabbed his sword, and charged for the door. The door opened, and Wei Shao’s sword was inches away from an old maid’s nose. The servant turned out to be the trusted maid of Mama Wei, sent to spy on her son and his new wife. Wei Shao furiously told the maid to take a good look at Xiao Qiao, looking ever enchanting sitting in bed, then scared the maid out of her mind by splitting the door frame right in half with his sword. 
• By the time our heroine woke up the next morning, Wei Shao was gone. Xiao Qiao noticed that the box was also gone. 
• We find out that our heroine’s cousin, Qian Fan and Bi Zhi had settled down in a small mountain village. While traveling on their own, Bi Zhi found out firsthand what a mess of a world they currently lived in. More than once, Bi Zhi had to kill ruthlessly when bad unsavory characters turned their greedy eyes to Qian Fan. Despite finally being able to live as husband and wife with Qian Fan in a small village, Bi Zhi was starting to realize in order to protect the woman he loves in a lawless world where only the mightier fist survives, he will need to become more powerful if he wants to protect what he cherishes the most. 
• Quite displeased with the fact that her trusted maid was so publicly humiliated by her son the previous night…thus humiliating herself as well, Mama Wei decided to teach Xiao Qiao a lesson by asking her to cook breakfast for her. Guessing correctly that there would be no pleasing her mother-in-law no matter what she did, Xiao Qiao got out of cooking by telling Mama Wei that she needed to avoid meat due to the fact that she needed to copy down holy writings for Madam Wei (grandma). 
• In her previous life, our heroine had two college parents, so she had the opportunity to become quite skilled in calligraphy. Unfortunately, due to her bad health, she died at the age of twenty. 
• While out shopping for a frame for her calligraphy, Xiao Qiao ran into a man who took an instant interest in her. Xiao Qiao coldly rebuffed the man’s attempt to strike up a conversation with her at the shop, but ended up running into him once again when she went home and paid her formal respect to Madam Wei. Turns out, the man was actually Wei Shao’s cousin. 
• Our heroine was a bit nervous meeting Madam Wei for the first time. From Qian Man’s memory, our heroine knew that Madam Wei was the only person who could actually be counted as kind to her cousin when Qian Fan was married to Wei Shao. Unfortunately, according to Qian Man’s memory, Madam Wei would die by some sort of accident within a year. Despite knowing that Madam Wei might not be around for long, Xiao Qiao was nonetheless very much aware she needed Madam Wei not to dislike her if she were to have any chance of improving her current situation. Fortunately, Madam Wei took an instant liking to Xiao Qiao after seeing the way she carried herself. Curiously, from Madam Wei’s inner dialogue, we found out that while everyone, including our hero, thought the reason for the marriage alliance was political (to gain the city) but it was actually for a reason she had not told anyone.
• Seeming on good terms with one another, Wei Shao and his cousin, Wei Yan (the man who showed interest in our heroine when they met by chance in a shop) chatted and drank together on the night Wei Yan had come to visit Madam Wei. A bit surprised to see Wei Shao coming back to their room drunk, Xiao Qiao promptly suggested Wei Yan take a bath since she knew him well enough by this point to know that he is rather particular about cleanliness. A drunk Wei Yan stumbled off to take his bath but fell asleep inside the bathtub. Feeling something was off when she couldn’t hear any more sounds coming from Wei Yan’s direction, Xiao Qiao carefully went into the bathing room and poked Wei Yan awake with a wooden stick. The moment she saw Wei Shao’s eyes open, Xiao Qiao averted her eyes and softly informed him that he had fallen asleep. Xiao Qiao turned to leave as Wei Shao sat up in the tub, and promptly sped up her steps when she heard the sound of water splashing as Wei Shao stood up. Behind her, Wei Shao’s slightly hoarse voice came “My clothes, hand them to me.” Reluctantly, Xiao Qiao turned back and picked up his clothes to take them to him. By this point, Wei Shao had wrapped a big towel around himself. Taking the clothes from Xiao Qiao, Wei Shao casually threw them on, then let the towel drop to the floor. Seemingly still quite drunk, Wei Shao wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings and Xiao Qian ended up watching him walk right into a wooden shelf, smacking his head hard. Wei Shao stopped, let out a hiss of pain, and put a hand to his head. Xiao Qiao couldn’t suppress the small laugh. The laugh was very quiet and was quickly swallowed by her, but Wei Shao’s hearing was apparently very good as his head snapped back to glance at her. Immediately, Xiao Qiao’s expression was one of solemn seriousness. “Who put this shelf here?” His voice sounded quite displeased. “It was here originally.” Xiao Qiao answered softly, then quickly added “I could ask them to put it away.” Wei Shao glanced at her again and answered coldly, “No need.” 
•  Following Wei Shao back to their room, Xiao Qiao saw that he was already lying in bed. Blowing out the candle, Xiao Qiao tried to carefully climb over Wei Shao without touching him, but the moment she successfully lay down in the dark, Wei Shao’s voice came, “I am thirsty.” Catching the obvious hint that she was supposed to go get water for him, Xiao Qiao got up and carefully climbed over Wei Shao again without touching him. After getting some water for Wei Shao, Xiao Qiao blew out the candle and once again got in bed…only to have Wei Shao say again, “Still thirsty.” Wondering to herself if Wei Shao is doing this purposefully to get back at her and daydreaming they if they were in modern times, then she would just kick him off the bed so he could get all the water he wants by himself, Xiao Qiao nonetheless resigned herself to repeat everything she just did. This time though, before getting back in bed, she made sure Wei Shao was not thirsty anymore. Yet again, carefully climbing over Wei Shao in the dark, Xiao Qiao’s body was suddenly knocked off balance by a slight push of Wei Shao’s leg. Feeling the whole of her front body pressed against Wei Shao’s leg, a flustered Xiao Qiao tried to get up, but Wei Shao suddenly pressed close and asked in his cold voice, “Was it very funny just now?” 
•  Xiao Qiao tried to pretend not to know what Wei Shao’s question meant, but they both knew she knew exactly what he meant. After a long moment, Wei Shao finally backed off and Xiao Qiao tried again to go back to her side, only to discover a corner of her robe was under Wei Shao’s leg. Xiao Qiao tried to pull that small piece of fabric free, but the fabric didn’t move at all. Left with no choice, Xiao Qiao could only ask softly, “Fu qun (this means husband), you are on a corner of my robe.” After a bit, Wei Shao let out a cold grunt and lifted his leg, allowing Xiao Qiao to quickly crawl to her side. 
• The night ended with the husband and wife both grumbling in their head about the other…except Wei Shao’s final thought ended with an observation that Xiao Qiao’s “front” felt quite soft pressed on his leg.

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