I Picked Up a Prince to Be My Slave

My next novel will be The Emperor's Wife: a gentle, honest minister's wife x an emperor who seems mild but is secretly a madman. The blurb is at the end! (A short, sweet story of around 100,000 characters) A sweet, standoffish girl with no manners training 🐰 x a scheming, crafty young man who is very good at putting on an act 🦊 After her birth mother died young and her stepmother treated her cruelly, Shen Guiti was confined to a dark room from childhood. With no one to teach her, she grew up aloof and detached, knowing little of the world. When she came of age, an alleged curse was used as an excuse to drive her out of the capital and send her far away. Hoping to secure a comfortable life for herself, she decided to buy a slave to serve her personally. After much thought, she settled on the gravely wounded young man she had saved from the brink of death. He owed her his life, so it was only reasonable that he repay her by devoting himself to her. The young man she rescued was handsome and remarkably obedient around Shen Guiti. He served her tea, did the washing and cooking, and never once complained. Even when she deliberately made things difficult for him, ordering him to kneel and put her shoes on, he did as he was told. More amused than ever, Shen Guiti reached out and hooked a finger in his belt. The moment their skin touched, all the smooth words he usually had at his disposal deserted him. He could only turn away with red ears, his Adam's apple bobbing, unable to say no. Shen Guiti was thoroughly pleased. She thought she wouldn't mind if things stayed this way forever. But one day, she woke to find the young man gone from her bedside. Furious, she swore she would find him and drag him back, but after searching for a long time, she came up empty-handed. Then, upon her return to the capital, she saw the future emperor, the Third Prince, surrounded by guests at a banquet. He had the exact same face as the young man. Judging by what people in the capital said about the Third Prince, Shen Guiti's treatment of him would have earned her a hundred death sentences. Terrified, she packed her things in the middle of the night and fled over the wall. She ran to a remote town cut off from the rest of the world, hoping to leave her past behind and live a quiet life. Just as she was settling into a routine, she opened the door to find the handsome young man smiling at her. He cornered her against the wall, his peach-blossom eyes full of amusement. “Why are you running, Master...?” “Didn't you say I had to serve you for the rest of my life?” His voice was soft and unhurried, like the quiet response he used to give when she punished him, and even more like the tone he'd used when she coaxed him into making a sound in bed. * After spending more than a decade as the pampered Third Prince, Xie Zhaoci never imagined that, in his hour of misfortune, someone would tie a rope around his wrist and hold him to his debt of gratitude. At first, he felt humiliated. A prince of the realm, disgraced by a girl who knew nothing of the world. He smiled to her face, but in his heart he planned to kill her as soon as he recovered. Later, he thought: If she wanted a servant, he would be her servant for the rest of his life. Until her eyes held no one but him, filled only with his figure and his presence. Like the two ends of a rope, they entwined and tightened, bound together in life and death. For all eternity, never to part. The rope bound him, and it bound her too She wouldn't get away from him. Reader's Guide: 1. One-on-one romance, both leads' first love, happy ending. 2. The heroine mistreats the hero a little early on, but he won't retaliate later or force her into anything. Readers with high moral standards for heroines or who are extremely devoted to the male lead should proceed with caution. 3. The hero does not have Stockholm syndrome. The heroine bullies him because she grew up without anyone to discipline her, which left her with an unusual way of thinking, and because she sees him as her servant. The hero falls for her for other reasons, not because she hits him. 4. A sweet, romance-focused story. Everything serves the relationship, the political intrigue is simplistic, and I'm still working on the logic. 5. This is a fictional setting. The characters are not based on real people, so please don't read too much into it. The Emperor's Wife The night before her wedding, Yun Yao came across a blind man who was gravely wounded and barely conscious. Moved by pity, she was about to help him when she realized he had been drugged with a potent aphrodisiac. By a twist of fate, they spent one reckless night together. Afterward, she fled in a panic, telling herself it was merely a dream that no one else would ever know about. She never spoke of it again. A year later, Yun Yao married. Her husband passed the imperial examinations and entered government service, and the two of them set off for the capital, believing their lives would only get better from then on. But to her horror, the man with whom she had spent that reckless night in the mountain cave was none other than the reigning emperor! Yun Yao was terrified, but the emperor seemed not to recognize her, and never mentioned what had happened. She gradually relaxed, keeping that unspeakable secret buried deep inside. Until the day her husband was framed and thrown into prison. To save him, Yun Yao had no choice but to stake everything and summon the courage to plead her case before the emperor. The young emperor was kind and magnanimous. He patiently listened to her tearful account of the injustice, then gently helped her to her feet with a warm palm. “I understand what you have told me, Madam. I will clear your husband's name.” Yun Yao was overwhelmed with gratitude, eagerly awaiting her husband's release. But that night, the husband she longed for never came. Instead, the emperor arrived with all his disguises cast aside. The handsome face she had admired for its kindness that morning now belonged to a man who abruptly clamped fingers tinged with a faint trace of blood around her chin, gripping hard enough to leave her no chance to break free. He bent close, his hot breath brushing her ear. “I will save your husband, Madam. How do you plan to repay me?” “After all, I remember how much I enjoyed you a year ago.” His eyes, usually gentle and smiling, now brimmed with undisguised desire. His gaze swept over her trembling body with unmistakable intent. In that instant, she understood everything. * Everyone praised the reigning emperor as kind, gentle, and refined, generous and forgiving toward both officials and common people. But no one knew he had a bloodthirsty, uncontrollable affliction. Then, by chance, he became intimate with a country girl whose face he could not see. The unique scent of her body soothed the madness and murderous urges surging within him. He had meant to take her back to the palace, but the next morning, she was gone. When they met again, she entered the palace with her childhood sweetheart and husband, smiling brightly as she affectionately clung to his arm, her eyes filled with love. Since this woman could ease his affliction, he would force her into the palace and make her serve him, even if she was already another man's wife. At first, he only craved her scent. Later, he wanted more and more. Only then did he realize that Yun Yao was not the one imprisoned. It was his own heart that had already fallen captive. He loved gripping her waist hard and leaving layer upon layer of marks on her fair skin. Sometimes, even when she resisted, he would bite her roughly, a cruel smile on his face. “Tell me, if I leave these marks on you, will anyone see them in the morning?” Theme: You have to fight for your own happiness.