Building a Nest

[A shy, timid, clever heroine × a gentle, guileless, hardworking Brocade Guard with a hidden identity who solves cases]

Li Guanqi is an embroiderer. She has come to Jiangzhou to find Fu Shiqin, the man her family betrothed her to when they were children.

Her memories of childhood are distant now. She vaguely remembers that young Shiqin was bad at arithmetic and often got the short end of the stick when doing business away from home, but he was kind by nature and treated her well. He would make an excellent husband.

Following the information on a piece of paper, she found the Fu household, but Fu Shiqin insisted he had never known her.

“Look, when people bargain with you, you’re too honest to haggle. You’re bad at arithmetic, and even the way your eyes curve when you smile is exactly the same as when you were little...”

Fu Shiqin, who had been smiling at her, silently stopped smiling and furrowed his brow. “Why don’t you take another look?”

Li Guanqi was timid and disliked strangers. If her family had not suffered a sudden calamity, she would never have had the courage to travel alone to Jiangzhou in search of him.

When he refused to acknowledge their childhood betrothal, she worked hard to find proof, leaving him no room to deny it. When he still dared to argue, she... drugged him and his mother’s food. The two were duly married.

After their wedding, Shiqin never once blamed her for drugging him. Instead, he felt sorry that someone as timid as her had been driven to such a thing.

She lived surrounded by her husband’s endless patience and affection, and felt very happy.

One was a cloth merchant who was bad at arithmetic but gentle and honest with people. The other was a shy, timid little embroiderer with a bit of talent who cared for her home. Everyone said they were a perfect match.

Until the day she found a bloodstained black outfit in the wardrobe.

Before she could ask her husband, who had left early to sell cloth, a group of people stormed their home that night. She huddled under the covers, barely daring to breathe, while her husband, she had no idea when, had already taken up a position on the roof and ensured none of them left alive.

Guanqi was terrified. After Shiqin cleaned up the scene, he got into bed beside her. She lay perfectly still, pretending to be asleep, convinced she had not given herself away at all. But Fu Shiqin did not hold her close as he usually did.

After that, another group of people came to kill them every few days. She stayed by Shiqin’s side and kept up their marriage, never daring to hand over the divorce papers, until the man she had truly been betrothed to as a child appeared and said he would take her away...

She decided it was time to bring out the divorce papers.

That night, Fu Shiqin finished cleaning up the scene, exhausted. After scrubbing away the smell of blood, he got into bed and, having moved only a little closer to Guanqi than he had in recent days, nuzzled her neck and whispered, “What else do you like about him? I’ll learn.”

There could not be anyone in the world more gentle than her husband.

Besides, all those days had made Li Guanqi a good deal braver.

She tore up the divorce papers and decided not to leave after all.

| Guanqi trembles like a leaf after her husband kills someone, yet thinks she has given nothing away.

| Shiqin kills all those people and then sleeps like a baby.

Note: Blurb written on December 23.

Note: The drug mentioned in the blurb is a sleeping draught.

(Coming soon: This Cousin Is No Easy Match. Please follow if you’re interested.)

[A kind and innocent heroine who is made to impersonate a vicious young lady × an emotionally steady, perceptive, vampiric revenge-seeking male lead]

Liu Zhanying is a maid trained by the Li family to serve as a stand-in for their vicious young lady. She is about to be sent to the residence of the young lady’s cousin in the capital.

The young lady and her cousin have a deep-seated grudge, and Liu Zhanying is being sent in her place to endure his torment.

The young master had followed his family from their home to the Li residence in Jiangnan when he was young. After his mother died and his father was imprisoned, he was forced to enlist. Unexpectedly, he made a name for himself on the battlefield. The enemy feared him and called him “the elusive master hunter.”

Everyone else respectfully called him the Marquis of Jingshou.

“Jingshou” was a title bestowed by the emperor. He was said to be as handsome as fine jade, but when facing his enemies, he would lie in wait like a hunter before striking suddenly to kill.

But Liu Zhanying thought otherwise. In her eyes, Zhao Jingye had always been the same adorable and kindhearted young master who had once lived at the Li residence.

On her first day in the general’s residence, where she had entered as a stand-in for the vicious young lady, Liu Zhanying felt more comfortable than she ever had before. She had everything she could eat and wear.

Her first meeting with Zhao Jingye went smoothly, too. At the time, she was playing the young lady’s wicked role and making life difficult for a maid. Zhao Jingye even asked her, “Cousin, have you settled in? If you need anything, just ask.”

Young Master Zhao was just as he had always been, though his smile did not quite reach his eyes.

Considering that he was facing a cousin with whom he shared a deep grudge, the fact that he could be so courteous was already impressive.

*

Out of kindness, Liu Zhanying wanted to put an end to the grudge between the young lady and Young Master Zhao.

But this was a grudge that could not easily be resolved.

Everyone said she was doomed, that Zhao Jingye would torment her to death and that the Li family had sent her away because they had given up on her.

But Zhao Jingye never tormented her, not even once. He was never harsh with her, either. She had once been a maid, but after coming to the capital, she made many close friends at the academy, and Zhao Jingye became friends with them, too.

Eventually, she and Zhao Jingye fell in love, and they surrendered to the pleasures of the bedchamber, defying every rule of propriety.

But just as she thought Zhao Jingye had finally let go of his hatred...

One day, she found a notebook in Zhao Jingye’s room, filled with detailed records of everything she had done since entering the residence. She had been under his surveillance the entire time. Every single thing she had done in the capital, every word and action, had been recorded.

It seemed he was plotting a long, drawn-out revenge that would strike a fatal blow.

*

Liu Zhanying felt more terrified than ever, the hairs on her body standing on end. Ahead lay Zhao Jingye’s precise revenge, waiting to strike at an unknown moment. Behind her, the Li family held the lives of her entire family in their hands.

What was she supposed to do...

Note: Blurb written on September 13, 2026, screenshot saved.

Theme: Live a good life.