Spoiler
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
For those that are not sure if they want to continue without knowing who Shen Yu ends up with.
.
.
.
Shen Yu ends up with the Prince of Zhenbei.
.
.
.
The Prince of Zhenbei (first male lead) will force himself on Shen Yu (MC) while in prison before he ends up breaking free from prison. He will then overthrow the emperor (who was really the cause of all of the misunderstandings to begin with) and take over the kingdom. Yu will also be too late to save his mother, but he will meet some people that are kind to him and help him along the way. Eventually, The Prince goes through a very long redeption arc in which is disguises himself as a mute guard that is protecting Shen Yu (Thr Prince covers his face). Meanwhile Yu is now very chatty and talks a lot (they almost reverse roles). The Prince (disguised as the mute guard) feels the frustration that Yu felt all that time since he can not clearly communicate without speaking ot he will give away that he is The Prince. Later Shen Yu is supposed to marry someone else and that leads to a conversation with The Prince (mute guard) about past love and that is when The Prince really starts to see how Yu felt the whole time about him. Shen Yu suspected that the mute guard was The Prince several times, but it wasn't until they were under attack that he finally revealed himself. The Prince almost dies from the multiple wounds that he suffered trying to protect Shen Yu. They still have a lot of things to discuss but Yu starts to see that The Prince is trying really hard to make things right and that The Prince truly loves Shen Yu, which forces Yu to acknowledge that he never stopped loving The Prince.
Also you can look the book up on wattpad, the first half is not translated very well and is pretty hard to get through, but the second half is well done.
Are there and other stories similar to this?