The Concubine's Allure, Volume Two: Spring Deep in the Bronze Sparrow Palace

This is my first time running a giveaway, and I'm not quite sure how it works. I'll give 20 Jinjiang Coins to one person. Please forgive the author for being so foolish and not figuring it out. I promise here that everyone who leaves a comment will receive a holiday red envelope for National Day. Happy National Day in advance, everyone!

Please follow my upcoming story, The Beile's Cast-Off Wife (now publishing)~

Please follow my upcoming story, The Fragrance Appraiser (ongoing)~

Please follow my upcoming story, His Robe Is Worn, Yet I Wait for You Again (now publishing)~

Recommended: The Allure of the Consort, Part One: Plum Blossoms Fall on Chu's Robes (complete)

Recommended: The Allure of the Consort, Part Two: Spring Runs Deep in the Bronze Sparrow Palace (complete)

Recommended: The Allure of the Consort, Part Three: The Emperor's Dignity (ongoing)

Ready to binge: Hearing You Are Unwell (over one million characters published)

All can be found on the author's page, Monanzi...

Starting August 10, 2021, this story will update twice daily, at noon, for a total of 6,000 characters per day. If an update isn't posted on time, I may be revising the chapter.

[Blurb 1]:

The Crown Princess has three treasures: gentle, alluring, and beautiful.

The Crown Prince has three flaws: fierce, jealous, and petty.

In this life, he pursues his wife again, and everyone calls him a doting husband.

But his wife is so alluring that she attracts countless admirers.

Watch the Crown Prince battle a host of male heartthrobs for the top spot and finally consummate his marriage.

He really has used up every bit of intelligence he has for this.

[Blurb 2]

An old nun in a ruined nunnery halfway up the mountainside at Daxing Tangyu read Feiyan's birth chart and said, "She is destined to be empress, worthy of an emperor."

A week after Feiyan was born, a wandering Taoist came to her door and recited a prophecy based on her birth chart: "She will be mother to all under heaven, and fate will bring her many romances."

Born into the Chancellor's household, she lost her mother soon after. Though she was the legitimate daughter, her stepmother took her place, and she was treated as inferior to the concubine-born children.

Her fate was strange. Her destiny changed again and again. She married three times and divorced three times.

Each time she married, her husband was soon gone. They either died, were injured, or vanished mysteriously.

Had the wandering Taoist and the mountain nun truly seen through the secrets of heaven?

[Character Highlights from Part Two, Spring Runs Deep in the Bronze Sparrow Palace]:

[Second Male Lead Gao Miao]:

A skilled fighter with excellent all-around abilities, adept at divination and prediction, a classic low-martial-arts character.

A strategist in the art of war, versed in the trigrams Li, Dui, and Xun, and the elements of metal, wood, water, and fire.

He can find dragon veins and read the mountains: each ridge marks another pass.

A master of traditional divination, an exceptionally versatile talent who is both scholarly and martial.

A little like Zhuge Liang, capable of just about anything.

He has the ethereal, unworldly air of a Taoist immortal.

[Male Lead, the Crown Prince]:

His name is Huang Yan. He pursues his wife again in another life.

In his previous life, he rose from a young scholar to a powerful figure in government, transforming from a man with a strong sense of justice into a schemer.

After committing too many wrongs, he has to win his wife back in his next life, and it takes great effort.

His rivals are formidable. Fighting to reclaim his former wife leaves the Crown Prince exhausted.

The female lead seems close, then suddenly slips away again.

He cannot easily make amends for the sins of his previous life.

His former wife died tragically because of his negligence.

He is consumed with guilt and heartbroken.

He is willing to endure any hardship and let her have her way, as long as she changes her mind and agrees to rekindle their old love.

(The previous-life story appears in the prequel to The Allure of the Consort series, His Robe Is Worn, Yet I Wait for You Again.)

[Female Lead, Man Feiyan]:

The legitimate daughter of Chancellor Man.

She is timid by nature. When she is among other people, they quickly undermine her confidence.

She is constantly manipulated and attacked.

Is "The highest good is like water; water benefits all things without contention" the perfect description of her?

So sweet it could melt the heavens! A traditionally gentle woman.

Fu Wenpei from Romance in the Rain? Everyone around her is a Commander~

Her fate is not merely one of "wandering and hardship," but of having "no control over her own destiny."

Unable to control her own fate, she is constantly surrounded by people who help make decisions for her and steer her life.

She is ringed by powerful people, all stronger than she is, and she suppresses herself.

The story is full of twists and turns. You never know where this great ship is headed~

Introspective, prone to tears, and as soft as a boneless creature.

Soft and yielding, with a tender, lingering, and clingy dynamic with the male lead~

Compared to the male leads, she is not very proactive.

[Reading Notes]:

1. A fortune-teller read a girl's birth chart and gave her the eight-character prophecy, "She will be mother to all under heaven, and fate will bring her many romances." Every word of it later comes true.

2. This story is more of a biography of the female lead, not simply a romance. Love is only one part of her life.

3. The focus is on the hardships of the female lead's background and her ill-fated life. She meets many men, all of whom become involved with her in some way. The emphasis is on her extraordinary life, not a one-on-one romance. Romance makes up 40% of the story. This is not a strong-female-lead story. The heroine is not strong, but gentle and unable to control her own fate.

4. The Crown Prince Huang Yan and the female lead Man Feiyan are both reborn. The other male characters belong to this life and are not reincarnated.

5. The fictional state of Baibi is modeled on ancient Chang'an in its capital. The city has 108 wards, eastern and western markets, a bell and drum tower, Daming Palace, and the palace and imperial cities.

6. Prices are similar to those in the Song-era novel Water Margin. For instance, a cleaver costs nine coins and a pound of pork costs fifteen, similar to nine and fifteen yuan today. Readers can make the comparison as they read~ If anyone who cares about historical accuracy spots an error, please leave a comment. Your corrections are welcome, and the author will be grateful~ After all, the author isn't omniscient~

7. The overall framework of this book is already complete. The author's current work is to check for omissions, add or remove material, revise, and polish. The broad direction of the plot will not undergo any major changes, and substantial alterations are difficult at this stage. I can only keep making it more and more complete.

8. The author admits that every story has its flaws. I can only promise to do my best to correct any problems as soon as I discover them. Suggestions are very welcome, so please point things out in the comments. I hope to hear from you all, and we can discuss them together.

[About This Story]:

The Allure of the Consort is a series of legendary stories about women in ancient times. This is the second book, The Allure of the Consort, Part Two: Spring Runs Deep in the Bronze Sparrow Palace.

The first book, The Allure of the Consort, Part One: Plum Blossoms Fall on Chu's Robes, is complete at 200,000 characters.

You can find it on my author page. Special thanks to my longtime readers for their patience and support.

The author has never given up on this book and has kept revising it. I can't sleep well unless I get the revisions right.

Every day, I open several documents and read and revise them over and over.

I've never given up, and I'm especially grateful to all of you for your support and for sticking with me.

--------[Recommended Stories]--------

[Recommendation 1]:

A farming, business, strong heroine, and food story, with a well-rounded heroine: The Fragrance Appraiser:

The female lead, Lin Yuechan, comes from the mountains of Shu. She is a farm girl who makes delicious, authentic Sichuan cuisine.

After becoming Granny Sun's apprentice, she gets drawn into the world of flowers, herbs, and furs, and can't pull herself away.

As it happens, the male lead, Xue Tanjun, is a famous and wealthy merchant in Chengdu who trades in fragrant herbs and has close ties to the government.

The two form an unbreakable bond over flowers and plants, and through a twist of fate, they marry.

But one is a poor farm girl, while the other is a handsome young master from a wealthy family. In the end, they cannot truly unite their hearts.

Lin Yuechan never expected that the marriage others envied would last less than a year before she divorced the young master...

From then on, her life takes off, and Li, an older fellow villager from Shu, is always by her side, protecting, caring for, and supporting her.

Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Young Master Xue, who only shows up when she succeeds after failing to support her through hard times, is now in a very awkward position. After all, his former wife left in such a hurry that the marriage document might not even have been officially dissolved in the Chengdu government offices.

In Young Master Xue's eyes, his ex-wife Lin Yuechan is putting horns on him every day. How infuriating! This is simply intolerable~...

[Theme]:

The female lead is strong, optimistic, brave, and confident. She strives forward and refuses to back down in the face of difficulty.

A beacon of positive energy, she becomes an unyielding example of how hardship can forge one's will.

With perseverance and virtue, she builds a business of her own.

This is a classic tale of a woman in ancient times who starts from nothing, builds a successful business, and helps her fellow villagers, humble farmers, prosper along with her.

[Encouragement]:

Independent innovation, self-reliance, invention, and creativity.

Establish a model of advanced civilization and build an exemplary enterprise for society.

[Recommendation 2]

Prequel to The Allure of the Consort series: His Robe Is Worn, Yet I Wait for You Again:

The male lead is Chai Zhexi, and the female lead is Ye Zhijun.

It tells the story of the Crown Prince Huang Yan, the male lead of The Allure of the Consort series,

and his childhood sweetheart, Man Feiyan, in their previous life: from falling in love and marrying, to the male lead achieving success,

and the pair's mysterious deaths~

Their entanglement in their previous life leads to the events of The Allure of the Consort in a later life,

when the Crown Prince and Feiyan are reunited in their next life~~

I'm writing ahead as fast as I can. Readers, please click to follow.

[Recommendation 3]:

A grand classical palace-war romance for the ages: Hearing You Are Unwell:

This is a story of love and hatred between royal cousins, set against a sweeping backdrop.

The female lead, Chen A'ruan, is the daughter of Right Chancellor Chen and granddaughter of the Duke of Dingguo. She was born into the powerful and prestigious Duke of Dingguo's household.

She falls in love with her cousin Li Hongjun, who rules as emperor from the palace.

But while the previous emperor was on the throne, the powerful Prince of Huai'an dominated the court and controlled the northern armies.

To protect his empire, the previous emperor betroths his sixth son, Li Hongjun, to his childhood sweetheart and cousin Chen A'ruan, marrying her to Zheng Xianfeng, the second son of Prince Huai'an.

Chen A'ruan is only thirteen when she gets married. As soon as the ceremony is over, Second Young Master Zheng leaves for war.

She stays at the Zheng household for less than three days before running back home. The marriage is all but a sham.

As power and love become entwined, Second Young Master Zheng and the emperor wage an intense struggle for their respective ambitions and affections.

In this unavoidable battle between dragons and tigers, A'ruan's innocent, lively spirit is pulled in every direction until it gradually loses its vitality.

Power struggles tear the court apart, and the realm falls into turmoil. One man seeks to rebel and become emperor, while the other desperately expands his territory to secure his rule.

Thus, amid irreconcilable conflicts that slowly intensify, an eight-year war engulfing half the country finally erupts...

Love and law, reason and justice, right and wrong.

Like the "Wordless Stele" at Qianling, it is for future generations to judge and discuss as they please.

[Note]:

The first six books together have over one million characters published.

A sumptuous feast, ready to binge...

The seventh book, The Power of the Eastern Lord, is coming soon.

For more stories by Monanzi, click here: Hearing You Are Unwell. Support Monanzi and click below to follow the story.

Theme: As long as you put your heart into something, you will gain something from it!