The Phoenix Feather Quartet

Once there was a bodyguard who was like a brother to the impetuous imperial prince he was sworn to protect. The prince fell for a breathtakingly beautiful but entirely unworldly-wise young aristocrat from a scholarly family, but when she rejected him, he turned vindictive and ordered the bodyguard to kill her. But the bodyguard had himself fallen in love with the young woman, and she with him, so they fled to the far ends of the empire. The prince--who became emperor--holds an undying grudge.

Thi...