Seizing Her Heart

Cool, restrained, and aloof, a man who goes mad for love x brothers vying for the same woman and pulling each other's hair x a groveling chase to win her back

Everyone in the Duke of Guo's household knew the Old Madam wanted to keep her cousin, Wen Qiong, by her side for good. She couldn't bear to see her married off.

The eldest young master, Shen Ji, was twenty-six, cool and aloof as snow that never melts. The second young master, Shen Guanqi, was around Wen Qiong's age, charming and handsome. Everyone thought he was the obvious match for her.

Then the Wen family fell overnight. Her father was struck by disaster, old family friends shut their doors, and not a single friend or relative from better days was willing to help. How cruel the world could be. In the fading light of dusk, she looked up at the heavens and asked in despair. The wind sobbed, but no answer came.

A figure clad in snow-white appeared before her. Shen Ji looked down at her, annoyed that she had disturbed his peace. His voice was as cold as ice.

"What people call warmth and coldness is merely weighing benefits and drawbacks, exchanging value. Begging and weeping are useless. Even the heavens won't hear you."

"Cousin, please be quiet."

Later, he was drugged and lost control. Wen Qiong saw a faint flush spread across his jade-white face, dark flames kindling in those eyes that were always so cold.

She leaned down and gently kissed his forehead. A pair of hands wrapped around her waist, burning hot as he dragged her into the dark of night.

When morning light rose again, she clung to his shoulder, breath unsteady, yet each word clear.

"In exchange, save my father."

His gaze darkened. His fingertips brushed the red marks by her neck, and he suddenly gave a very soft laugh.

"You may not be able to afford the price."

Shen Ji had always believed that people gathered for profit and parted when it ran out. They scrabbled and schemed, only for it all to end in an empty dream. So he watched the world with cold eyes, as if viewing flowers through a veil of mist.

Until one day, passing beneath a covered walkway, he saw someone lift her face as tears silently fell. Again and again, she asked the empty sky, "Why?"

Later, she came into his world.

It was as if a flower had drifted into the palm of his hand.

He saw her colors, her fragrance, her fragility.

Life seemed to have meaning. Everything was wonderful.

Except for the fact that

Shen Guanqi raced back to the Duke of Guo's estate, warning his elder brother to stay away from his younger brother's betrothed.

Shen Ji reminded his younger brother, "You're not the only one who carries the Shen family's blood."

Shen Ji wanted Wen Qiong to tell his foolish younger brother herself what their relationship was.

Their intimacy, their conversations, their love.

But Wen Qiong gazed at him with clear, shining eyes and told him:

It was a transaction.

Everyone said he was cold and aloof, but the one who truly had no heart was someone else. She kept him tossing and turning day and night, yearning for what he could never have.

Wen Qiong had never considered getting married. Her mother had given her money and a country estate, and she thought that, if all went well, she would save her father and then return to her hometown... ...

But the Shen brothers kept dragging her back, again and again, forcing her to say:

Who did she love more?

Clear-headed, restrained, and shrewd Imperial College Director X a gentle, resilient, and honest heroine

Pre-release: Riding the Golden Bough

Emperor Guangren, Xie Xuan, hated people who ingratiated themselves with the powerful more than anything. After ascending the throne, he hated them even more.

Nanzhu was exactly the kind of person he despised most.

It couldn't be helped. She wasn't an immortal who lived on dew. People needed clothes and food to survive.

Nanzhu had known poverty as a child. She had been cold while others wore padded coats and she wore rags; she had craved sweets while others ate sweet cakes and she chewed grass roots.

Even after becoming a noblewoman, she could never shake her deep-rooted desire for material abundance. Before the poor woman who had brought her back died, she told Nanzhu that these were troubled times, and that she had to plan for herself and marry into a good family.

One day she was a weed in the mud, the next a pearl in the clouds. Nanzhu knew all too well what a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood lay beyond this beautiful manor.

A beauty with a calculating air who couldn't quite make her schemes work arrived at the century-old Xie clan of Chen Commandery.

Her intentions were too obvious, and her acting was too poor.

But her face was truly beautiful.

Xie Xuan watched her wrap several young gentlemen of the clan around her little finger, then come to ingratiate herself with him. He was disgusted. He would never fall for someone like her.

Later, on the Golden Palace Terrace, gazing at the mountain scenery, Emperor Guangren held Nanzhu's face and dropped increasingly obvious hints.

"The mountains and forests are all beneath My feet right now."

Xie Xuan resented Nanzhu for not climbing to the highest branch.

She only needed to climb the highest branch: him.

How could she climb this one and still look toward another?

Theme: People touch one another to defy the void