My Cousin Can Only Be Mine

[Blurb restored]

After her family fortune is wiped out, Jiang Chunzhi has no choice but to take her little sister and seek refuge with her maternal aunt at the Marquis's estate.

She only wants to find honest work and live quietly, but her cousin, the strict young marquis Cui Yijian, makes things difficult for her at every turn.

He catches her meeting her secret crush and coolly warns her not to get any other ideas.

She secretly writes romance stories to help make ends meet, but he confiscates every one and scolds her for behaving improperly.

Fortunately, her cousin is already engaged to the princess.

The princess is gentle and sweet, and treats Jiang Chunzhi with warmth and affection. She is truly a perfect match for him.

Every day, Jiang Chunzhi hopes they will marry soon. Once they do, he will have no reason to meddle in her affairs.

Who could have guessed that during the Shangyuan Festival, she would accidentally inhale an aphrodisiac and lose herself in one reckless night?

When she opens her eyes, the first thing she sees is her cousin's deep, dark gaze.

Her mind goes completely blank.

*

After the old marquis dies in a losing battle for his country, Cui Yijian wins the emperor's trust through a royal marriage.

Even if he and the princess are mismatched, he will still treat her with respect and remain by her side until they grow old.

Until one day, he personally welcomes his down-and-out cousin into his home.

He never imagined that one day, his position as the princess's consort would become a cage.

Watching his cousin's heart rise and fall over the man she loves, all he can do is offer a few discreet words of advice under the guise of a cousin, swallowing his feelings.

Then, without anyone noticing, he keeps prying eyes away, works his way into her life, and secretly plans to call off his engagement.

After all, his cousin still has three years of mourning to observe. There is plenty of time.

But one day, he accidentally finds his fiancée, who prefers women, drunk and asleep in his cousin's arms, half pouting and half delirious as she calls her "big sister."

This turn of events seems to have slipped beyond his control.

On the night of the Shangyuan Festival, his cousin stumbles out of his fiancée's room in disarray and falls straight into his arms.

As he watches his furious fiancée nearby, he bends down provocatively and claims his cousin's lips, kissing her with reckless abandon.

Plenty of time? He doesn't mind getting an early start.

Reader's guide:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads' first time, happy ending.

2. A self-satisfied, high-status male lead × a seemingly cool but deeply passionate, resilient female lead. He restrains himself early on and pretends to guide her, but gradually reveals his obsessive side later.

3. A leisurely aristocratic family-life story. The household intrigue is almost nonexistent; the focus is on the leads falling in love.

4. The early plot takes a little time to warm up, with the major drama later on. Expect rivals competing for the heroine, a rekindled romance, and a pregnancy-and-flight plotline. Sweet at first, bittersweet later.

Coming soon: The Lover I Once Humiliated Became a Prince of an Enemy Nation. Please add it to your reading list!

A gloomy, insecure, obsessive man vs. a sweet, carefree girl with a sunny disposition

In the royal family of Nan Wu, every princess must select handsome men to serve her in the bedchamber and teach her about sex once she comes of age.

One day, while watching captured soldiers fight to the death, Yuzhuo sees the arena stained with blood and littered with corpses. The last boy standing is drenched in blood, his wolfish eyes fixed on the stands.

Yuzhuo narrows her phoenix eyes and lazily raises a hand. "I'll take him."

He is a wolf beneath the sheets and a tiger in bed, and he loves biting her neck.

Pleased with how diligently he serves her, Yuzhuo indulges his growing arrogance and lets him choose whatever fine things he wants first.

When her mother the empress chooses a husband for her, Yuzhuo deliberately saves the position of secondary consort for him, just below the official consort.

But he leaves. In a single night, he vanishes from the face of the earth, never to be found.

War puts the wedding on hold, and both nations are left depleted. They agree to a marriage alliance to end the fighting.

Yuzhuo hears that the seventh prince of Bei Jing, who is to marry into her country, grew up among commoners and is cruel and sinister, taking pleasure in bloodshed. None of her sisters will go, so after much deliberation, the duty falls to Yuzhuo.

On their wedding night, her veil is lifted. In the flickering candlelight, she meets a pair of cold, solitary, wolf-like eyes.

*

Pei Ce is the illegitimate son of the emperor of Bei Jing, born while his father was living among commoners. He struggles to survive in the military, striving for distinction so his mother can be proud of him.

Then he loses a battle and becomes a prisoner of war, forced to fight his own people in an arena for the amusement of the enemy nation's royals.

He hates those nobles who take pleasure in watching others die.

He hates even more the noble-born woman who robbed him of his innocence.

She orders him to warm her bed naked every night.

Countless times, he presses his lips to the pulsing veins in her neck, wanting to end it all: to bite her to death and perish with her.

But whenever he looks up and meets her eyes, brimming with tears, all thoughts of murder vanish.

Aside from his mother, she is the only one in the world who remembers his birthday. Smiling brightly, she wishes him a happy nineteenth birthday.

She gives him fine clothes, delicious food, and rare treasures, letting him choose whatever he likes. She treats him as if he were something precious and unique.

But ever since the official consort appeared, she has gone everywhere arm in arm with him, riding through the imperial streets and admiring flowers and the moon.

Only then does Pei Ce seem to realize that, as a bedchamber companion, he can only hide in the shadows and slip into her bed. He will never be seen in the light.

It doesn't matter. He can earn a place for himself.

(2026.08.07)

Theme: For love, but also for myself