Steadfast, plainspoken maid × abstinent, feudal powerbroker
In his youth, Shen Shubai, Prince of Linjiang, lived on Mount Lao as a Daoist. He was renowned for his handsome looks and refined manners. He practiced a path of abstinence, focusing on his cultivation and on keeping himself strong and healthy. The women of Chang’an greatly admired him.
Few knew that Shen Shubai had taken up Daoism because of a hidden ailment: he was impotent.
In the third month of spring, the noble families gathered for a bathing festival.
Invited to attend, Shen Shubai followed the proper etiquette. As he passed through a courtyard corridor, a maid hurried into him. At first she kept her head down, but when she looked up, her bright eyes and jade-like features were so lovely and pitiable that Shen Shubai froze.
The woman timidly apologized and asked where her younger brother was. Shen Shubai pointed the way. She thanked him and turned to leave, trailing a faint, lingering fragrance that slipped into his every sense and spread through his body.
Shen Shubai watched her disappear into the white steam rising from the hot spring. Then he abruptly clenched his fingers. Without showing his feelings, he straightened his robe to conceal himself.
Beneath it, his manhood had suddenly stirred.
Annoyed that a mere maid had so easily aroused him, Shen Shubai banned all the maids from attending him in person.
One day, Shen Shubai was set up. Unable to endure the effects of an aphrodisiac, he chose Wen Zhen as his cure.
After tasting pleasure, Shen Shubai wanted more. He thought that keeping her by his side and raising her to the status of a concubine would give her a worry-free life. Surely it was a stroke of fortune for her.
Wen Zhen was a maid in the Prince of Linjiang’s household. She was beautiful, and because she was literate and well-read, she was chosen to attend the old madam. She kept her head down and did her duty, waiting for her contract to expire so she could buy back her freedom and leave the household.
Until the day the prince returned from a banquet drugged. The old madam ordered her to bring him a hangover remedy, and Shen Shubai chose her to be his cure...
After one night of pleasure, being raised to the status of a concubine might look like a stroke of fortune to others. But Qi Jingshu had no desire to be a concubine. She only wanted to leave the household and live her own life: marry an ordinary, decent man and live in peace.
She politely turned down Shen Shubai and continued working as a maid, patiently waiting for her contract to expire.
On the day she bought back her freedom and had her name removed from the household register, Wen Zhen was overjoyed, dreaming of her new life. But the person who appeared before her left her stunned with horror.
The usually impeccably dressed prince had blocked her path in an alley, his gaze icy.
“How brazen of you.”
“You actually expect me to come and fetch you myself!”
Shen Shubai had once thought that becoming his concubine would be Wen Zhen’s good fortune. Later, he begged her to become his wife, but she still wanted nothing to do with him.
Love brought him nothing but torment.
A possessive pursuit, a run with a child.
Blurb written on July 29, 2025, with a copy saved on Weibo.
Theme: Don’t be a clinging vine.
