Bound in Charm

♥️ A haughty, high-handed minister × a bewitching cousin who pretends to be an innocent little rabbit Shen Rou is the daughter of a salt merchant from Yangzhou, with a radiant beauty and a graceful, alluring figure. When a major illegal salt case brings ruin to her family, she goes alone to the capital to seek refuge with the Duke’s household. Xie Chu is the legitimate son of a powerful clan, the youngest minister in the court, noble and aloof. Shen Rou knows her cousin despises her. But to clear her family’s name, she resolves to attach herself to someone powerful. She makes pastries and brings sweet soup, all while being voluptuous, soft, and clingingly affectionate. Xie Chu watches with cool indifference and says with a faintly mocking tone, “Cousin, you certainly have a distinctive way of winning people over.” The whole household gossips about how the young lady is quite the little seductress. Fortunately, young master Xie Chu is a noble gentleman admired by his clan, upright and self-controlled. He would never fall for her charms. Yet no one knows what this gentleman, pure as snow on a mountain peak, thinks every time he looks at his delicate, sweet cousin. The day the lotuses bloomed, Xie Chu caught Shen Rou meeting a man in secret. For once, the usually composed man lost his temper. He clamped a hand around her slender wrist. “Shen Rou, do you think I really won’t punish you?” Shen Rou looked at him with tearful, innocent eyes and confessed, “I know I’m like mud compared to you, Cousin. How could I ever truly love you? Please, Cousin, let me go.” Let her go? The corner of his mouth lifted faintly, his expression calm, almost cold. At the Xie family’s villa, beneath the mandarin-duck bed curtains, Xie Chu elegantly wound silk cords around her wrists, then held her by her supple waist. His wanton kisses kept falling on her shoulders and neck. Shen Rou’s eyes grew moist, her porcelain skin flushed a faint pink, and she pleaded with him in a soft voice through her tears. His voice was low and husky, but he did not stop. “Cousin made a mistake. As her elder brother, I haven’t taught her properly.” “Be good, Rou’er. Say you won’t leave your cousin...” Content warnings: 1. Happy ending, one-on-one romance. 2. The male lead is physically and emotionally faithful. 3. Multiple male supporting characters. 4. Fictional setting. 🩷 Next book: Lotus Hue An overbearing patriarch × a lofty beauty, both vying for a bewitching woman! Sweet and delicate beauty / the chaste minister falls from his pedestal / stealing a friend’s beloved 🩷 Theme: Peonies bloom with fragrance, and with resentment.