Emperor Wen of Wei’s Taste for Brooding Young Men

Here’s a preview of my next upcoming novel, “The Lover of the Deposed Empress,” a pure-hate romance where the male emperor becomes the third party. The blurb is at the very bottom. Cao Cao finds a pretty little girl on the battlefield and thinks it would be nice if she could keep A Pi company. “A Pi, from today on, she’s your little sister. Don’t bully her.” When Cao Pi meets Zhen Yufu, there’s an uncanny, tacit understanding between them. “Oh.” Cao Pi replies coldly, his face expressionless. He doesn’t expose her identity as a daughter of the Zhen family. “Why do you call our eldest brother Ang-ge, but just call me Cao Pi?” “You spend all your time with A Zhi. I thought you two had more to talk about.” “Father and Mother just want a thoughtful daughter like you. Everyone has always liked you.” …This Cao Pi seems even gloomier than a normal person, Zhen Yufu thinks to herself. He’s all bluster, but clingy too. He has a bad temper, but is blessed with a stunningly handsome face. By the time Yufu notices Cao Pi’s obsessive, gloomy possessiveness and his love for her spiraling out of control, she realizes she’s made a terrible mistake. Holding hands, embracing, kissing: she loves doing all these things lovers do with him, but never thought she would marry him. At the Lantern Festival, on a night of prayers and blessings, the thin barrier between them is about to shatter. Yufu smiles with an innocent, bewildered air. “Second Brother, do you know Yuan Xi? I’ve only told you this, but he’s the man I’ll marry someday.” She and Yuan Xi, a young master of the Yuan family, have been engaged since childhood. Cao Pi can only blame himself for coming along too late… To Yufu’s surprise, Cao Pi doesn’t confront her or show the slightest sign that anything is wrong. After that night, they act just like real siblings. Even Yufu begins to wonder if she misread his feelings. That barrier between them wasn’t made of paper at all! It was an unbreakable wall. No one knows that on the night Yufu marries, Cao Pi spends the whole night alone in his tent, listening to the spring rain. The year Cao Cao’s army captures Ye, Cao Pi finally returns to the place where Yufu lives. Dressed as a married woman and looking frail, she is forced to kneel before him by the Yuan family, yet refuses to beg for mercy, her eyes red. In front of the Yuan family gathered in the room, Cao Pi strokes Zhen Yufu’s face and personally helps her sit beside him. “Yufu, you’ve suffered. If you’re still willing to call me your older brother…” “An older brother can be a husband too.” 1. Inspired by Cao Pi and Zhen Mi, with a pseudo-sibling romance. They are 16 and 15 at the beginning. The romance is the focus; historical events are just the backdrop. 2. The second male lead is Yuan Xi, an older man pretending to be the second male lead. 3. If you’re looking for an older woman-younger man pairing or a tragic ending, check out my other upcoming novel, “Reborn on the Night the Emperor Gave Me Poisoned Wine.” “The Lover of the Deposed Empress” One-line synopsis: After transmigrating into his wife’s ex-boyfriend’s body, he discovers that his wife really doesn’t love him. Qi Yingyao is a young emperor. After ascending the throne, he makes his beloved Crown Princess Wei his empress. In the second year of his reign, their first child is born, and Qi Yingyao immediately names their son crown prince. “Hanchai, in this life, you are the only one for me.” Overcome by passion, the emperor promises her that he will leave the six palaces empty for her. As Wei holds their swaddled baby in Qi Yingyao’s embrace, he experiences the feeling of having a home for the first time. In the fifth year of his reign, the young General Shang returns victorious. Delighted by the triumph over the Northern Di, and because a Shang daughter has entered the palace as a consort, Qi Yingyao grants him permission to visit the palace often. But whenever Shang Hengyu visits the inner palace, it turns out he isn’t visiting his sister. He’s visiting Empress Wei in Kunning Palace. Qi Yingyao realizes too late that his empress has long loved someone else. Shang Hengyu and she were childhood sweethearts who had already pledged themselves to each other. If not for an edict from the late emperor, they would have been husband and wife long ago. Deposed, confined; demoted, sent away. He should let the lovers be together. Qi Yingyao dies in his early forties, but why does he wake up in Shang Hengyu’s body? The new emperor ascends the throne and summons the young General Shang to the capital, where he is made a marquis and appointed to high office. Qi Yingyao doesn’t need to guess. This must be the wish of the current empress dowager, his own former empress, the one he deposed himself, his beloved Hanchai. “My love, you never had feelings for the late emperor. You’ve been waiting for me all these years, haven’t you?” Faced with her former lover, who asks through tears, Wei Hanchai nods. Looking at his own wife, Qi Yingyao shows such longing for the first time. For the first time, he is so alluring and bold in bed, so desperately devoted… Qi Yingyao is just as skilled at being an emperor as he is at being a subject and the empress dowager’s lover. When he discovers that Shang Hengyu has secretly raised troops and intends to rebel, the last taut thread inside him finally snaps. “Hanchai, your taste in men is terrible. The man you’ve been longing for only sees you as a pawn! A tool!” He deliberately leaves a weakness for the empress dowager to discover Shang’s dirty secrets. He will wait for his beloved to personally drive a blade into the heart of her former lover. Message: This time, I’ll make sure we find happiness.