Description: Hearing that her fiancé, the elegant Crown Prince, had become a paralytic, the noble girl who always wanted to outdo her peers couldn’t take the blow and killed herself, so her halpless disfigured maid had to finish the wedding ceremony with the Crown Prince on her behalf. “You are a paralyzed man, and I am an ugly girl. We are both despised by others, so we’d better stop loathing each other.” When they first met, she was all bluffing and pompous. … “Please keep instructing me for the rest of my life.” said the once paralyzed cripple who walked slowly towards her years later while putting a phoenix coronet over her head himself. “Instruct—Instruct how?” asked the bold and naughty ugly girl who acted bashfully like a newlywed at the moment, which was rare to see on usual days. “To instruct me this way…” His face was full of tenderness, while his fingers tried to untie the lute-like buckle of her underwear slowly. NU Link: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-emperors-beloved-ugly-girl/ Raws: https://www.xbiquge.cc/book/39802/
I've read 400 or 500 chapters, it's a really slow slow paced slice of life. If you are easily bored, I wouldn't suggest you to read it. Basically the male lead is the ex crown prince who is accused wrongly of something, beaten to the point of almost death and exiled. The MC is the servant of a noble girl who is engaged to the ML. The noble girl commits suicide and the MC is forced to take her place. So they begin their life together in a poor house in the middle of nowhere with no other servant.
It's a bit difficult to say in the sense that very little happens in terms of plot. The ML is almost paralyzed in bed for dozens of chapters, so the MC does any daily task in the house from cooking, cleaning both the house and the ML, feeding him, finding a little job for earning money. Little by little the ML improves but he can't walk properly due to the injuries he received. The novel blurb is misleading when it says that the MC is bluffing and pompous, she is just an unfortunate person who tries her best to keep going and manages to make feel alive also the ML who is, understandably, quite depressed. The ML is also indebted to the MC because she saved him before from a fire which caused her a serious burn from one arm to the neck. This scar makes her very conscious about her look
Towards the middle of the novel, some drama kicks in. After living so close, the ML and MC gets really affectionate and decide to marry. Unfortunately the ML learns he is being poisoned for years and that's the reason why he doesn't have children (he is 32 years old and had few concubines back when we was the crown prince) and it will be impossible to get any unless he finds the antidote. He is very torn and distressed after this blow and doesn't know what to do because the MC really wants a family. He knows that if he told her the true, she would probably accept him anyway but he doesn't want to deprive her of the possibility of future children so in the end, he decides to trick her in leaving him.
Oh my gosh what happens after this??? Can someone pls spoil? How dramatic will it be? How long will they be separated? When do they get back together?
What's the point of calling the MC/FL UGLY, when it always turns out that she was never that hideous in the first place?! Most FanRomDra authors wouldn't dare to make their FL really that visually ugly and plain. The Ugly Duckling Trope is so outdated. Remember the failed Hollywood Blockbuster Mortal Engines and the controversy about the main character Hester Shaw whose disfugred face/Scar was toned down...?