Captive Pleasure

(My other novel, A Dignified Gentleman and a Fox Lady, is open for advance reservations and will launch alongside this one. You're welcome to check it out~)

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Li Linghuan is a respectable young woman, but she was born with a face that invites trouble.

During a famine, her brother and sister-in-law plan to sell her to a brothel.

Li Linghuan flees in the dead of night, changes her name, claims to be twenty years older than she really is, and even picks up a child to keep her company and help her stay out of harm's way.

When she enters the Tan household as a maid, she deliberately chooses a blind master.

After all, fooling a blind man shouldn't be hard.

She bribes the steward, disguises herself as an ugly, elderly woman, and, once the trouble has passed, packs her things and prepares to run.

But the blind man sits upright in the hall and says calmly, "Stay. I'll take you into my household."

Li Linghuan is horrified. "But I'm thirty-eight this year, with hollow cheeks and cheekbones that reach for the sky. From afar, I look like a frostbitten old eggplant come to life; up close, I resemble a temple servant who has descended from the underworld. I'm terribly ugly!"

Tan Gui's eyes are covered with white silk. "It doesn't matter. I don't mind."

Li Linghuan: "..." I mind!

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Tan Gui was once a scion of a distinguished family who had passed the palace examination with honors.

After disaster struck one night and left him completely blind, he lost heart and withdrew to a small town in Huizhou.

All the world's colors turned to gray, and women were nothing but an illusion to him.

He simply found that having this plain-looking, middle-aged maid by his side was strangely comforting.

So he never asked whether she was willing.

After all, he thought that given her circumstances, staying by his side was already a tremendous blessing.

Who knew this ill-fated entanglement would begin there?

Time and again, he suffered splitting headaches, his brain boiling like poisonous sludge. He would race a thousand miles to seize her and bring her back, yet could never make her say she was willing.

Li Linghuan always looked at him coldly, her smile full of mockery. "Impressive. A blind man has learned to abduct women by force, too?"

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[Reading Guide:]

0. Li Linghuan (Ling), Tan Gui (Gui).

1. It has melodramatic forced romance, but it's also a story about everyday life.

2. She runs, he chases, and she can't get away.

3. A sly, clever, worldly young woman X a cold-hearted, obsessive scion of a distinguished family who is blind

[Don't miss the upcoming novel~]

Riding Through the Orchid Terrace

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During the Chengqi era of the Xinming dynasty, Shen Ruqing, an investigating censor in the Censorate, was implicated in an old case and demoted from the Hanlin Academy to a dead-end post. Disheartened, he resigned and withdrew into the city, becoming a schoolteacher.

The once-cautious "Lord Shen" of the official world seemed to fade into obscurity.

But the world would not let him rest. The court was mired in corruption, and factional struggles swirled like a vortex. Prince Pingyuan needed a sharp blade to carve a path through the chaos of court, and he set his sights on Li Chongyi, Shen Ruqing's old classmate and close friend, and the Censorate's foremost thorn in everyone's side.

His words were blades. He risked his life to remonstrate and showed no mercy when impeaching officials. People had nicknamed him the "Street-Clearing Tiger of the Official World."

His strategist urged him, "If you want to employ Li Chongyi, you must first invite Shen Ruqing."

Xiao Rui dismissed the advice. What could a mediocre man who had been demoted possibly have in common with the nation's sharpest blade?

Until the day he visited the academy in person. When the prince tried to recruit him, Li Chongyi erupted like a firecracker, glaring as he shouted, "Your Highness wants to do something extraordinary, yet lacks the courage for it. You hesitate, you second-guess yourself, and you put on a coy act like a woman. How can you hope to achieve anything great?!"

Xiao Rui's deputy commander turned livid and nearly killed him on the spot.

Then Shen Ruqing, standing quietly nearby, spoke gently. "Chongyi means that he hopes Your Highness will keep a clear head and tread more boldly."

His sincere words and calm demeanor were like a spring breeze melting snow, turning that harsh but loyal admonition into sound advice the prince could accept.

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At first, Xiao Rui looked down on Shen Ruqing's mildness and tact, believing them to be useless feminine kindness and the weakness of a man worn down by the official world. But later, through countless open and hidden attacks and all the storms that battered them, it was this man who quietly smoothed things over and protected the blade's sharp edge.

Only then did Xiao Rui understand what kind of discerning mind lay within this seemingly frail man, and what kind of unyielding backbone allowed him to preserve his integrity in a corrupt world while still striving to serve all under heaven.

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Reading Guide:

1. The female lead disguises herself as a man.

2. The female lead is a bit of a coward.

My Wife's Younger Sister

One-line summary: Fate turns upside down, and a younger sister becomes a wife.

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A Pu lived for fifteen years before learning she wasn't her mother's biological daughter.

One day, a high-ranking official arrived in the capital. Her mother burst into tears and shoved her forward, and before she knew it, A Pu had become the sixth daughter of Li, a Ministry of Works vice minister: Li Puyu.

She moved into a grand mansion behind vermilion gates. The head of the family, Li Chong, was gentle and refined; his wife, Madam Wang, was kind and dignified. Everyone welcomed her with smiles and warm concern.

Everyone, that is, except Li Chengyu, the Li family's nominal eldest son.

He had passed all three levels of the imperial examinations, ridden through the streets adorned with flowers, and later won great merit by supporting the emperor. He was once all the rage. Cold and aloof, he was generous with money, but never once gave her a kind look.

A Pu knew Li Chengyu disliked her, so she wisely stayed out of his way. She only wanted to use the Li family's influence to find a good match, marry soon, and stop being an eyesore to him.

Later, she really did take a liking to someone: the son of a vice minister of Rites, a graceful gentleman, warm and gentle as jade.

The two arranged to take a boat out on the lake at dusk. As they parted, A Pu boldly gave him a kiss, then turned to climb into her carriage, only to find Li Chengyu seated inside. His phoenix eyes held a smile, and he rolled a jade bead between his fingers, but his gaze looked ready to devour her alive.

"A Pu," he said, his voice so gentle and tender it made her scalp tingle. "You've been enjoying yourself."

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Li Chengyu had seen enough of life's filth in the grand households of the powerful.

So when a girl as foolish as a goose was brought into the Li household, he felt both curious and annoyed.

Sure enough, she was crude and stupid, with a straightforward heart and a face that showed every emotion. The Li couple treated her as a pawn, and her brothers and sisters treated her as a joke. Li Chengyu watched coldly, waiting for her to wake up to the truth and become yet another loathsome, resentful ghost.

Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed. The wild girl had a body of iron and bronze, but a dog's brain.

She didn't try to ingratiate herself with him or ask him for things. If he occasionally showed her a little kindness, she was overwhelmed with gratitude. By the time Li Chengyu realized what had happened, he had grown used to secretly shielding her from those petty schemes.

Until she blushed and said she had taken a fancy to the vice minister of Rites' illegitimate son.

He had met that young man. He wasn't fit to hold a shoe for anyone in the Li family. Li Chengyu thought she was hopelessly stupid after all.

So on the day of the boat trip, he inexplicably climbed into her carriage, only to see her kissing another man without restraint.

Li Chengyu scolded her for being frivolous. That night, however, he dreamed an improper dream. He woke in a cold sweat, knowing it was wrong, and could only restrain himself day and night. As usual, he prepared her dowry, making up for the callousness and cold looks she'd endured that year, and hurried to marry her off.

But before the wedding, A Pu insisted on visiting a temple to pray for blessings. Heavy snow blocked the mountain, and the road was long. Her carriage plunged off a cliff. When Li Chengyu arrived, A Pu opened her eyes and stared at him in confusion, asking who he was.

Before the Buddha, a thousand green lamps had burned, and her prayers had brought fate's reversal at last.

Li Chengyu's mind exploded. He suddenly bent down and held her tightly in his arms.

"A Pu, you're the wife who's about to marry into my family."

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What younger sister? What Li family? What propriety?

No one in this household is a good person.

Including him.

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[Reading Guide:]

1. They are not blood-related; neither lead is related to the other by blood.

2. Forced romance, with a powerful male lead and a weaker female lead.

3. Slow burn at first, melodrama later.

Core message: Keep living with determination, and let life go on.