Debt of Beauty

[The only authorized release is on Jinjiang Literature City. Infringements will be pursued. The text may be revised from time to time. We are not responsible for any pirated content found elsewhere online.] From the start, she was the Crown Prince's consort. In the end, she became the Crown Prince's mother. Emperor Yuanzhao ascended the throne as a young man and wielded imperial power for twenty-two years. Proud all his life, he was struck by a grave illness before reaching forty, and his final years were miserable. He had loved and raised Shu Ningyun for half her life, but on his deathbed she said to him, “You old bastard. Seeing you like this is so satisfying. I'll send your son down to join you soon.” Reborn in the year he bestowed a marriage on his eldest son and Shu Ningyun, Emperor Yuanzhao looked at the woman kneeling before him in tears. His heart held no love for her now, only cold laughter. He lifted her chin and wiped away her tears, soothing her as he had when she was a child. “I was wrong. Your scheming, disobedience, and lack of filial piety are all because I failed to raise you properly.” He hated her, questioned and scolded her. Just as he decided never to see her again, he happened to see that the male courtesan she cherished so dearly had a face strikingly similar to his own. From that moment on, the sound of her hated sobbing changed in his mind. Her tearful eyes, her lips: she became an object of desire. - Shu Ningyun had been raised by Emperor Yuanzhao since childhood and had always admired his stern authority. But he was not her biological father. Three years ago, he had made her a junzhu and sent her to her fief, and from then on he was no longer her adoptive father, either. Now he had graciously arranged for her to marry his eldest son. Ningyun had tried to resist, but when she saw him faint with rage, she knew she had no choice but to obey. He scolded Ningyun for her disobedience and lack of filial piety, showing no regard for their past bond. Ningyun's heart was already dead to him. Still, whenever she thought of him afterward, she couldn't help cursing him: old bastard! One day, she returned to the place where she had lived as a child, lost in sorrow. Emperor Yuanzhao suddenly appeared before her, his gaze smoldering, showing none of the signs of his supposedly terminal illness. He used a folding fan to lift her chin, forcing her to look up. “Little thing, why do you keep insulting me?” Ningyun raised her head and looked up at him. She saw his jade belt cinching his waist, his chest slowly rising and falling. She lowered her eyes and pressed the fan down a little, brushing her tender cheek against his burning palm. “It's all because Your Majesty failed to raise Yun'er properly back then.” She hated him, resented him, and defied him. All of it called for him to raise her, take her forcibly into his arms, and possess her night and day. This, too, was a kind of upbringing. - Xu Zhen schemed again and again until he finally secured the position of Crown Prince and Shu Ningyun as his Crown Princess. But as the wedding date drew near, his father summoned Shu Ningyun to the palace under the pretext of filial service. He went to the palace to ask why, only to find his usually dignified and stern father on the floor, his imperial robes and jade belt discarded. His powerful, bare back was exposed, the muscles around his shoulder blades tensed like a mountain about to collapse, as he pinned the woman who would be Xu Zhen's Crown Princess beneath him. His father's sinewy arm braced beside her ear, while his large hand gripped her slender, pale ankle, effortlessly folding her against the bed. “You little viper! My Yun'er, my darling, ” ----Please note before reading---- 1. The heroine lived in the palace as a child and was the same age as the princes and princesses. She and the hero once had a relationship as elder and younger, but they never had a genuine father-daughter relationship. 2. The story uses some terms of address that imply a relationship. These are used as part of the romantic descriptions in the novel. 3. The romantic entanglements all begin after the heroine returns to the capital as an adult, and after her original relationship has ended. Upcoming novel: After I Accidentally Seduced the Crown Prince's Father Being a hidden guard is hard. Being a pawn sent to seduce someone is even harder. And yet Baohua was given the task of seducing the Crown Prince and his younger brother. Getting close to the Crown Prince and winning his trust had already left Baohua exhausted, body and soul. But why hadn't the intelligence said anything about the Crown Prince's strange daddy kink? He was always patting her head, giving her tasty treats, dressing her up in pretty clothes, teaching her to hold a brush, to eat properly, and to sit on a chair instead of kneeling on the floor. In public, he was dignified and chaste, beyond reproach. In private, he made her call him Daddy! At first, Baohua was confused. Later, she learned that this was a term of endearment used in the bedroom, and blushing, she called him Daddy. Who could have known that the Crown Prince would ask her to say all sorts of embarrassing things, yet grow more and more reserved himself, no matter how much she tried to seduce him? Left with no other choice, she gave him deer-blood wine, then threw herself into his arms and offered herself to him. But... what did he mean, the one who had spent days making love to her and couldn't bear to let her go wasn't the Crown Prince, but his father? The emperor himself? - Emperor Jing'an was naturally indifferent and avoided women. While recuperating at a palace retreat, he took pity on a badly injured young girl and took her in to treat her wounds. The girl's name was Baohua. When he first brought her back, she was like a frightened bird, cowering in a corner to hide from him. He pampered her like a princess until she became so spoiled she needed someone to help her walk and coax her into taking her medicine. He also taught and disciplined her, teaching her good manners and to obey him. When she behaved, he patted her head. When she didn't, he pinned her across his knees. He had originally intended to adopt her as his daughter, but after spending so much time together, the two of them developed romantic feelings. They were together by day, and he held her close at night. After years of abstinence, he found himself unable to get enough of her. Emperor Jing'an was about to reveal his identity and make her a noble consort when he unexpectedly discovered her affair with his youngest son, Prince Yu. He was eager to kill the scheming vixen, but just as disaster struck, she continued to lie to him: “Your Highness, Crown Prince, Prince Yu is the one who bullied me. You must kill him. He wants to steal your throne.” “...What Crown Prince? What throne? The emperor is still on the throne. How could it be the Crown Prince's?” She clung to him and acted coy, lowering her eyes to wipe her tears. “Why care about your father? His Majesty is old already. He doesn't have many years left.” - [An innocent young hidden guard is taken in by a chaste older Daddy type, transforming from a stray kitten into his beautiful darling who can no longer live without him] Theme: Hold my hand, and grow old with me.