Jade Slave’s Makeup

[Revision in progress. Stolen versions won't match.

In her previous life, Xie Yuanhua loved Wang Ying for her entire life, but she never confessed or told him how she felt.

Wang Ying was the legitimate son of the Wang family, refined and handsome, with an elegant bearing. His contemporaries called him "the Jade Man." Unfortunately, he was born frail and sickly.

Xie Yuanhua, by contrast, was only a concubine-born daughter, with an unremarkable face. At banquets, she only dared steal distant glances at Wang Ying, who stood at the center of the crowd.

She buried her girlish feelings deep in her heart, never letting anyone see them.

Until that day.

News came from Jiankang: Wang Ying had been "stared to death."

Xie Yuanhua fainted on the spot. What did it mean to be "stared to death"?

Only after she woke did she learn the truth. Wang Ying had gone out, and because he was so handsome, people surrounded him and trapped him until he died.

She wept until her heart nearly broke, then fell seriously ill.

A year later, her family arranged for her to marry a concubine-born son of the Yu family.

From then on, she left Jiankang with her husband and settled in Kuaiji.

Their marriage was lukewarm. When she failed to bear a child for a long time, her husband took two concubines. Xie Yuanhua didn't care.

Her heart had died that day.

Before she turned forty, Xie Yuanhua passed away after years of depression.

When she opened her eyes again, she was astonished to find herself back in midsummer at sixteen, the day before Wang Ying was fated to be stared to death.

*

Wang Ying was nobly born and as graceful as an orchid or jade tree, yet trapped in a frail body. He drank ginseng soup every day, and illness never left his side.

Day after day, Wang Ying had long been tormented into resentment and cruelty.

On the surface, he was a Wang gentleman with a radiant, noble air. When no one was around, he was a vengeful ghost with evil spirits at his heels.

He knew that the fourth young lady of the Xie family liked him, of course, but he had never cared.

Everyone in the world liked him, loved his looks.

So when the Fourth Miss Xie showed up unannounced, he was annoyed but still patiently agreed to see her.

But the moment she saw him, she asked something inexplicable: "Would you please stay home tomorrow, Lord Wang?"

He frowned. "Why do you say that, Miss?"

Miss Xie only stammered, unable to give him a reason.

A familiar ache returned somewhere in his body. Wang Ying had no patience left for this. "Please go, Miss."

He turned to leave.

A slender hand suddenly grabbed the edge of his sleeve.

"If you don't listen to me, your life may be in danger!"

Wang Ying didn't believe her at all.

He was irritated beyond measure, and the viciousness in his nature rose to the surface.

Wang Ying slowly turned around. His tone was intimate, but his eyes were icy. "Whether it's true or not, Miss Xie and I have only ever exchanged polite greetings. So why do you care whether I live or die?"

It was plum-rain season in Jiangnan. The covered walkway was heavy with damp air, which clung to the sleeves and hems of their clothes.

He saw the young woman before him crying as she said, one word at a time, "Because I have loved you for a long time, Lord Wang."

Wang Ying's eyes flew open.

[Quiet, taciturn heroine x Frail, sickly beauty of a young man]

Reading guide:

* Set in an alternate Wei-Jin era

* The heroine is reborn and is insecure and repressed in the early chapters

* The male lead is based on Wei Jie

* The heroine is not a virgin, but the male lead is (in her previous life, she was married and had no children)

* Romance-focused, with a little angst and melodrama

--------------------Upcoming Novel--------------------

"After We Got Love Gu with My Cousin" Launches November 18

Junzhu Gu Miaoxian has a secret.

She has been in love with her nominal ninth cousin, Li Hefeng, for a long time.

Everyone in Luoyang knows that the ninth prince, Prince Guangling, is as beautiful as a woman, but proud and mean-spirited, always looking down on everyone around him.

Gu Miaoxian is only his cousin in name. Her father was lucky enough to become the consort of a princess, which was how she earned her title of junzhu.

Gu Miaoxian has loved collecting beautiful things since childhood. Li Hefeng is the most beautiful person she has ever seen, so naturally, she wants to make him hers.

But despite repeatedly approaching him on purpose, her cousin has always treated her coolly. Beneath his long, soft lashes, his narrow phoenix eyes are always filled with distant, icy light.

In a fit of mortified anger, Gu Miaoxian buys a love gu from a black-market dealer from Miao territory. It is supposed to make its victims feverish and aroused.

In a secluded mountain cave, the proud, noble beauty of a young man flushes scarlet and can't help embracing the girl who appears to be panicking and crying nonstop.

When they come to their senses, Li Hefeng is suspicious and disgusted. He specifically seeks out a famous Miao spiritual master in Luoyang to ask about the gu. The reply: this is a love gu, seen only once in a century.

As the name suggests, a love gu makes the two people infected with it grow ever fonder of each other, and there is no cure.

Li Hefeng is devastated. Gu Miaoxian is overjoyed.

From then on, the two become hopelessly entangled. Li Hefeng can no longer ignore Gu Miaoxian like he used to, and she discovers that he pays more and more attention to her.

Finally, one day, Li Hefeng can no longer withstand the love gu's power and asks Gu Miaoxian to meet him.

He coldly tells her that they can be together, but he wants to make one thing clear first: at most, she can hold his hand. She mustn't even think about anything else. Gu Miaoxian nods obediently.

Three months later.

Gu Miaoxian is strolling by the Taiye Pool in the palace with several princesses and junzhus, and accidentally falls behind the group.

As she passes through an archway, a pair of arms suddenly wraps tightly around her. Before she can cry out, soft red lips press against hers, and the person kissing her calls her childhood name: "Baozhen."

Li Hefeng grows more and more infatuated with Gu Miaoxian, but she grows more and more uneasy.

The love gu is far more terrifying than she imagined. While things are still somewhat under control, she writes him a letter and breaks things off for good.

After being dumped, Li Hefeng is bewildered. He even sheds a few quiet tears, for Gu Miaoxian and for himself.

But just a few days later, the Miao spiritual master is exposed as a butcher who knows nothing at all! There was never any love gu!

Li Hefeng: Σ(*°口°)?!

[Sweet, scheming girl-next-door x Proud, mean-spirited beauty of a young man]

Reading guide:

* The male and female leads are nominal cousins with no blood relation

* Set in an alternate Tang dynasty

* Both are each other's first and only; happy ending

Theme: Save lives and walk toward the light