You Can't Be My Kept Husband

Yu Yousi's plan to find a husband who would marry into her family fell apart the moment she learned that Xiao Zhiheng was the Prince of Qin.

He dressed plainly and stood by the roadside, clutching two enormous steamed buns and eating away. Sure, he was almost absurdly handsome and impeccably mannered, but how could he possibly be a prince?

Yu Yousi couldn't even manage a smile.

Her poor, beautiful young man, and all the romantic moments they'd shared over the past month, had now vanished like a bubble.

A prince, no less, saying he was willing to go with her to her home a thousand miles away. Honestly, who would believe that?

Yu Yousi tearfully turned him down again and again, but in the end, she couldn't withstand his repeated invitations and the lure of his good looks. Maybe they could meet in secret, where nobody would find out, and part ways when the time came.

Xiao Zhiheng lost his mother when he was young and spent a long time giving up on himself. When he first met Yu Yousi, whose circumstances resembled his own, he saw her chase away the troublemakers at her door with tears in her eyes but her head held high. Without realizing it, he began paying more attention to her.

Then came the day she saved him aboard a merchant ship. His first stirrings of affection gradually deepened.

Didn't they say a life-saving kindness should be repaid by giving yourself to your savior? So why, when it came to him, did she not only refuse to give herself to him, but stop seeing him altogether after learning who he was?

Xiao Zhiheng pondered the matter all night. At his elder sister's urging, he took the crooked path of seducing her with his looks.

But crooked or not, as long as it works, what's the problem?

A recommendation for an upcoming novel

What's So Fun About Romance?

Ren Ximian once again wondered whether Qin Huaiyi was into men.

He looked so proper, so refined and handsome, with the air of a high-minded gentleman. So why was he always getting handsy with her?

She was wearing men's clothes, for heaven's sake!

Standing close enough for Ren Ximian to count his eyelashes was one thing. Insisting on sharing her bed was another. She could even tell herself that his habit of taking her hand was because he lacked a sense of security. But repeatedly holding her and refusing to let go, joking time and again about growing old together, and even asking her to help him after she accidentally caught him relieving himself one night?

Is this how men treat their brothers?!

Master, the world down the mountain is terrifying!

Ren Ximian put investigating whether the princess's marriage alliance was genuine on her to-do list. Once the mission was done, she would go straight home. No more trips down the mountain!

Qin Huaiyi thought Ren Ximian was like a block of wood.

He'd tried everything he could think of to get close to her, yet she avoided him like he was a wild beast and even suspected he was attracted to men.

Did she really think her disguise was convincing?

Qin Huaiyi had recognized Ren Ximian the first time he saw her. They had known each other as children, and he'd thought of her for more than ten years, while she had forgotten him completely.

That was unacceptable.

He would never let her go. He would love her for a lifetime and stay by her side until they were old and gray. Even after death, they would be bound together forever, never to part.

Theme: Be strong and self-reliant, and pursue happiness.