After Disguising Myself as a Man and Becoming the Emperor's Lover

[Exclusively on Jinjiang Literature City]

Cross-dressing as a man | A touch of court intrigue | A touch of mystery | Reanimated corpses | SC | HE

A shrewd, smooth-talking director of the Eastern Depot who is, in truth, a calm and clever orphaned daughter seeking revenge

A cold-hearted young emperor who is, in truth, a sensitive, obsessive romantic with a one-track mind

[Plot-Focused Synopsis]

The Mu clan, a founding noble family, was wiped out in a servants' revolt, and everyone in the household perished in a sea of flames.

The orphaned Pei Chengjin chose to bury her past, her identity, even her name and gender, becoming a lowly eunuch in the imperial palace.

The road to revenge was steep and treacherous.

A clue she stumbled upon by chance pulled her into an even greater mystery.

At court, the Empress Dowager and the Emperor stood at odds, their rivalry as fierce as fire and water.

Of these two adversaries, who would make the better pawn?

A strange man ripped out hearts in the streets of the imperial capital, while innocent refugees were secretly turned into bloodthirsty fiends.

Who was the mastermind, and who would be his next target?

Gu-infected people devoured hearts, and the dead rose again.

Was this divine punishment, or a human conspiracy?

[Romance-Focused Synopsis]

Female lead's perspective:

Pei Chengjin risked her life to rise from a lowborn nobody to director of the Eastern Depot.

She knew full well that she was nothing more than a sharp blade in the hands of those in power.

Caught in a whirlpool of power and surging conflict,

she played the sycophant in everyone's eyes and entered the game, all to clear her family's name.

She couldn't understand where she had gone wrong along this rough road to revenge.

How had their pure, flawless relationship between sovereign and subject suddenly changed, until she became the Emperor's lover?

Male lead's perspective:

The director of the Eastern Depot, Pei Chengjin, has a red mole between his brows and an androgynous beauty.

That was the first thing Emperor Si Daizhou heard about him.

So what if he was beautiful? It was nothing special.

And yet Pei Chengjin truly captivated him.

Were his feelings for Pei Chengjin a matter of exploitation, or a transaction?

Or had his uncontrollable heart simply found an excuse for his schemes from the very beginning?

A few notes:

1. This story is somewhat plot-driven.

2. The country, dynasty, official titles, and forms of address are all fictional, created to serve the plot and not meant to be examined too closely.

3. BG, the male lead has no harem. He isn't attracted to men or any other women, only the female lead herself. One-on-one romance.

4. Before her identity is revealed, the female lead is referred to with male pronouns. After it is revealed, she is referred to with female pronouns.

(The pronouns used before the reveal are being changed gradually...)

Below are the synopses of two ongoing novels

Contemporary Romance: Threefold Ruin

Reunited after years apart | Rivalry over a woman | Angsty drama | Love triangle showdown | The man who chases his wife into the crematorium

Cool, love-averse female CEO × gentle, tea-scented male teacher × obsessive, possessive heir to a wealthy family

1. Yan Xiangchu first met Yi Xiuheng after a class reunion. She and Lin Zizhuo reunited at the reunion itself.

She slapped Lin Zizhuo and walked out of that absurd gathering, but made a mistake.

She spent a wild night with Yi Xiuheng, a man she had just met.

If it was a mistake, it should have ended there.

Instead, she allowed Yi Xiuheng into her monotonous life. Perhaps she craved a moment of warmth, yet didn't know what to do with it.

Yan Xiangchu couldn't make sense of the emotions swirling in Yi Xiuheng's eyes.

But until she could bring herself to stop, she chose to let things continue.

Later, Lin Zizhuo, who always wore impeccable suits, changed into an outfit like Yi Xiuheng's and barged into her office to ask, "Is this what you like?"

A red mark remained at the corner of Lin Zizhuo's mouth: the imprint of the slap she had given him at the reunion.

Yan Xiangchu thought she hated him.

When they were young, he had been an arrogant young master, while she was an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy family, scorned by everyone. They were worlds apart.

His inexplicable affection struck her as absurd.

Use him, take advantage of that affection, then hurt him again. Would that count as revenge for the past?

2. Yi Xiuheng had spent twenty-six years living by the rules, until a woman he'd just met changed everything on an ordinary night.

He realized he was far greedier than he had imagined.

But that was all right. Yan Xiangchu had given him permission to indulge that greed.

Yi Xiuheng awkwardly edged his way into her life.

Maybe he really was a despicable man, he thought.

Yi Xiuheng put on the appearance of a gentle, considerate man, but deep down, an inferiority complex stirred restlessly.

Yet fate was so artfully arranged. He had never imagined that years later, those two lonely, helpless children would become entangled again through a one-night stand.

3. Ever since they parted as teenagers, Lin Zizhuo had waited a long time for Yan Xiangchu.

Long enough for the words he wanted to say to take root in his heart, long enough for his waiting to become laughable and absurd.

Their reunion came without warning. On the night of the class reunion, he endured the pain in half his face and watched Yan Xiangchu take another man's hand with his own eyes.

There was no hatred or disgust in her eyes. Or perhaps she simply hated him.

Jealousy swept over Lin Zizhuo like a tide, quietly swallowing him whole. He went mad and lost control.

Even if everything he did to Yan Xiangchu was childish and twisted, there was no turning back now.

Wei Xuan You: Tentacles Must Stay Hidden

Overworked, barely coping, and honest woman × aloof, sinister tentacled monster

Cheng Yiyao was an utterly ordinary office worker.

One night, while working overtime, she found a blue-glowing octopus by a manhole on her way home.

Believing every life deserved to be cherished, she took the little octopus home.

Later, a Chinese executive with one-third foreign ancestry joined her company out of nowhere.

Cheng Yiyao looked at the man through her thick glasses. His eyes were the blue of the deep sea, a little like her pet octopus.

Though they were only colleagues, she dreamed about him.

"Take a sip, and we'll become one." The man held her wrist, a thin line of blood seeping through his pale skin. His long hair brushed past her waist, and his deep blue eyes were inches away.

Whenever she woke, Cheng Yiyao thought she must be going crazy. She couldn't tell the man in her dreams apart from her real-life boss.

On workdays, she would absentmindedly grip her pen, writing a few lines of "Little Octopus Observation Log," while out of the corner of her eye she caught her boss sneaking a hand toward the afternoon tea that had just arrived.

A look of longing and reverence appeared inexplicably on the man's expressionless face. He bit into a dessert and chewed mechanically, the tips of his ears turning red.

*

"What is a kiss? Do you do that with other human males?"

With only a door between them, Cheng Yiyao could even hear her coworkers talking.

"Does your temperature rise when you kiss?"

The man restrained her wrist. Where their skin touched, he was cold to the bone.

His tall silhouette drew closer with every step, his shadow falling over her. Cheng Yiyao couldn't see him clearly, but guessed he must be wearing that absurd, robotic expression again.

"You don't like me touching you like this? But didn't you touch its tentacles?"

The man's eyelids twitched twice. As if something had occurred to him, his features shifted into an unusual expression.

He was close enough now for Cheng Yiyao to see his face.

His handsome, refined eyes curved with excitement, while his deep blue pupils were dark as the sea.

"Will you do these things with me? Will you... sleep with me in the ancient, eternal darkness?"

Little Octopus Observation Log:

1. The little octopus is only half the size of a palm. It has a round, plump body, deep blue with a few silver markings.

2. The little octopus has four tentacles, short and thick like four blue sausages. The suckers at their tips are pale pink and grow a little warm if you touch them for long.

3. The little octopus likes to steal sweets. After eating, its blue tentacles turn a little pink. But can octopuses really eat sweets?

4. The little octopus doesn't like staying in a plastic basin and keeps climbing out, so I bought it a glass tank.

Theme: Unravel the mysteries, root out the treacherous, and restore peace to the land.