I Would Rather Embrace a Fragrant Branch

[This novel has been revised many times, so pirated copies differ greatly from the original.

My next novel is Wrongly Seducing My Cool and Aloof Elder Brother-in-Law. Please add it to your reading list!

Yun Qi is a medical student who transmigrates one day into the body of the widowed second young madam of the Duke of Sui's household. Her mother-in-law looks down on her for her humble country origins and bullies her at every turn.

On the surface, Yun Qi swallows her anger, playing the obedient, smiling daughter-in-law. In reality, she is constantly plotting her escape.

At last, her chance comes, and she flees the household under cover of night.

On the boat leaving the capital, officials are hunting down a wanted criminal. She accidentally boards a pirate ship and is mistaken for an accomplice, then thrown into prison.

The man ordered to investigate the case turns out to be her late husband's elder brother, whom she has never met: Xie Xia, heir to the Duke of Sui and a second-rank Zhejiang governor before the age of thirty.

To save her life, Yun Qi has no choice but to reveal her identity and plead desperately, "I'm innocent! Please, sir, save me."

*

After her identity is verified, Yun Qi ends up back at the household.

Her escape has been exposed, and now she has to tread even more carefully.

By chance, she discovers that Xie Xia is suffering from an incurable poison. She comes up with a plan and makes a deal with him: she will cure him, and he will let her leave the household and grant her freedom.

Xie Xia pays little attention to a lowly country girl like her.

But as his illness is troubling him, he is also curious to see what she can do. With a faintly mocking smile, he agrees, "I'll consider it."

For the sake of that promise, Yun Qi prepares medicine and treats him, serves him diligently, and puts up with all his attempts to make things difficult for her.

At last, on the day Xie Xia recovers, she eagerly asks to leave. Xie Xia smiles deeply. "I have you to thank for this. I owe you a great debt."

Yun Qi is overjoyed. Though he is fickle and womanizing by nature, she thinks he is at least a man of his word. But Xie Xia reaches out and lightly taps her cheek. "From now on, you'll be my concubine."

Yun Qi is struck as if by a bolt from the blue.

*

Xie Xia is as elegant as a jade tree, a perfect minister in the eyes of the world.

At first, he takes little interest in Yun Qi. She is bold and perceptive, and he sees her only as a pawn to do his bidding.

But gradually, he cannot help letting his gaze linger on her, and her image keeps knocking at the door of his mind night after night.

He thinks that, unruly as she is, with enough discipline and guidance, she might yet become a docile and virtuous woman of the household.

He asks her to become his concubine. Though she refuses, her eyes red and her resolve firm, she declares, "I'd rather die than be your concubine."

Later, he resorts to underhanded methods, and in the end she agrees.

But he never realizes that she has not truly yielded for even a single moment.

One moment, she leaves a tender kiss on his face; the next, she tricks him with a sly smile and vanishes.

In this life, he has risen to the highest ranks of the court and enjoys boundless glory. Whatever he wants, countless people will rush to place before him.

Only this one little woman dares to defy him again and again.

He will lay a net from which there is no escape and drag her back, no matter what it takes.

Reader's Guide and Content Warnings:

1. One-on-one romance, happy ending, and a chaste male lead. The female lead's modern body and soul are chaste, but the ancient body she transmigrates into was married and is not. Her original husband is truly dead and will not return.

2. The dynasty and place names are fictional. Do not map them to real history or locations. This is an old-fashioned, melodramatic, coercive romance, focused on the relationship. The political intrigue is just for fun, so don't scrutinize it.

3. Includes abuse of the female lead, both physical and emotional. Readers who cannot handle this kind of story, especially those who are protective of the female lead, should stay away. The female lead suffers first, then the male lead. The male lead is a terrible person, an abusive, domineering patriarch. There is no second male lead who takes over as the love interest.

4. You don't need to tell me if you drop the novel. Please don't give me writing advice. I generally won't delete comments unless they maliciously attack the female lead or me, or repeatedly bring up other novels inappropriately. If other comments are deleted, it is because they triggered the system's banned-word filter, not because of me.

[The plot idea, inspiration, and blurb have been archived. The first draft of the blurb was written on November 30, 2025, and the final version revised on May 29, 2026.]

Please check out my next novel, Wrongly Seducing My Cool and Aloof Elder Brother-in-Law.

Blurb:

Su Qingyuan comes from a family of merchants, and her family's teahouse business is struggling.

Her elder brother and sister-in-law run the household and are constantly harsh with her. Unwilling to accept her lot, she dreams of marrying into wealth and rising to a higher station.

Just then, Huo Ling, the second young master of the Huo family in the capital, comes to study at an academy in Jiangnan and stops at the Su family's teahouse to rest. He falls in love with her at first sight.

After several encounters, she deceives Huo Ling, and the two sleep together while drunk.

Huo Ling is a young scholar experiencing love for the first time. He soon proposes returning to the capital to persuade his parents and send betrothal gifts so he can marry her.

Su Qingyuan thinks her good fortune is finally at hand. But just as expected, what she gets instead is word that the Huo elders consider her too lowborn to marry into their family.

Unwilling to let this opportunity slip away, she comes up with a plan: to get pregnant and force a marriage.

Around this time, a new accountant starts working at the teahouse.

He is young and handsome, broad-shouldered and long-legged, with a gentle, courteous manner. Su Qingyuan takes one look at him and decides he seems dependable in every way. If she can get him into her bed, she won't be settling for less.

With sweet words and relentless seduction, she finally gets her wish: one night together, then another.

A month later, she discovers she is pregnant. She decisively leaves the accountant behind and goes alone to the capital, where she knocks on the Huo family's door.

Because she is carrying the Huo family's legitimate grandson, they accept the marriage.

At last, Su Qingyuan can relax.

When the eldest Huo son hears that his younger brother is engaged, he rushes home to offer his congratulations. Su Qingyuan joins the elders in welcoming him. The moment she sees her future elder brother-in-law, her heart trembles and her legs go weak.

The man she has tangled with several times is staring straight at her with sharp, sinister eyes.

Huo Sheng is a great general of the Northwest, summoned back to the capital on a mission to root out spies hiding in Suzhou.

He goes undercover at a local teahouse, posing as an accountant.

The young lady of the teahouse keeps finding excuses to get close to him and act flirtatious. Since his false identity leaves him dependent on her household, he cannot openly reject her.

But the woman only grows bolder, flirting with and seducing him. For the first time in his life, he meets a woman so frivolous, wanton, and shameless.

Still, she is fair-skinned and beautiful, with a sweet voice and a bewitching manner. Since she throws herself at him, he decides to give her what she wants.

After several nights together, he becomes addicted to her charms and thinks that, once he returns to the capital, he might as well take her back as a concubine.

But she vanishes without a trace right under his nose.

Feeling insulted and played for a fool, he vows to find her and punish her severely.

Back in the capital, he meets his younger brother's bride-to-be, who is about to marry him because she is pregnant. The woman seems guilty, dodging him at every turn like a frightened rabbit.

He closes in step by step, watching her pale face, then teases her in public with suggestive malice: "Sister-in-law, why don't you tell them how the child in your belly was conceived?"

Content Warnings, Please Read:

1. Happy ending, one-on-one romance, and both leads are chaste.

2. From the time the female lead meets the male lead until she becomes pregnant, she has no written betrothal agreement with the second male lead. After becoming pregnant, she does not marry the second male lead. The male and female leads are not related by blood at any point.

Theme: A steadfast heart never turns away.