Beloved in the Palm of My Hand

[Next up: The Crown Prince Thinks I'm Seducing Him and This County Princess Gets Whatever She Wants, Please add them to your favorites QAQ] [My bestie’s completed, super-sweet short story, A Little Scheme, is so good! It’s about a sunny, adorable, lively, delicate, absolutely wonderful music arranger and her husband, whom she married for a political alliance~] Song Jiayao felt like everything had been going wrong for her lately. To stop her stepmother’s schemes from succeeding and escape the miserable fate of marrying the sadistic heir to the Marquis of Chengping, she had to find someone to marry in a hurry. At first, she set her sights on the newly appointed top scholar, only to learn soon afterward that he already had someone he loved. Later, she took a fancy to her cousin, who was so frightened that he fled the city in the middle of the night. She refused to give up, deciding that the young general of the Fu family seemed like a good choice too. The young general immediately switched careers and became a butcher. Song Jiayao: "..." I must have some kind of supernatural bad luck. Just as Song Jiayao was losing heart, she suddenly laid eyes on Cui Hexing, the regent who held power in his hands. He was powerful, handsome and proper, and most importantly, he was a good person. Song Jiayao decided he would do. She began working hard to win the regent over. She heard that he liked peach blossoms, so she specially brewed peach blossom wine and sent it to him. After drinking it, he nearly died on the spot. Then she learned that his favorite artist was Xu Pingshan, a celebrated painter from the previous dynasty. She paid a fortune for one of his paintings, only for the regent to be forced to accept a forgery. The journey was full of twists and turns, but fortunately, the future was bright. Song Jiayao finally escaped her stepmother’s schemes as she had hoped and married the regent. But a relationship without mutual affection is like a heap of loose sand. Six months after marrying the regent, Song Jiayao happened to discover that he had someone else in his heart. After much soul-searching, she decided to let him go and give him the chance to live happily ever after with the woman he loved. Unexpectedly, when she had packed her bags and reached the city gate by carriage, Cui Hexing stood there with a sword in hand, smiling as calmly as if nothing could touch him. Just as he had done on so many nights when they had whispered together, he spoke tenderly: "Yaoyao, either kill me, or come back with me." Jiayao sniffled. "Go back and watch you and your beloved act all lovey-dovey?" The regent, who was usually cruel and arbitrary, with ruthless methods, saw his little wife sitting in the carriage, crying pitifully and adorably. He was exasperated, but his heart softened all the same. Almost with a sigh, he asked, "My beloved, apart from you, when have I ever had anyone else in my heart?" From the second time he saw Song Jiayao, Cui Hexing had resolved to marry her. He made one elaborate plan after another, hiding all his usual ruthlessness in front of the woman he loved and pretending to be a gentleman as gentle as jade. He never expected that she would repeatedly look for a suitable husband, without ever turning her gaze toward him. There was nothing Cui Hexing could do but take his time and plot his course. Fortunately, in the end, he finally got his wish. "I would spend a lifetime scheming if it meant giving her a lifetime of joy." A sweet, delicate beauty with a few little schemes, but not many × A powerful minister who is gentle as jade in front of the woman he loves, but is actually ruthless and cunning 1. The leads are eight years apart. When they meet, he is twenty-four and she is sixteen. 2. The male lead secretly loves the female lead. This is an unconventional, everyday-life story about a marriage that turns into love. 3. The setting is entirely fictional. Blurb for The Crown Prince Thinks I'm Seducing Him: Although Jiang Yu was a concubine-born daughter, she had been very close to her legitimate older sister since childhood. Two years after her sister married into the marquis's household, she became pregnant and wrote to invite Jiang Yu to stay with her. Jiang Yu accepted the invitation, never imagining that her sister intended to use her to secure her husband's favor. With people sent by her stepmother watching her, Jiang Yu felt there was no escape. But she was unwilling to become a concubine. After thinking it over, she turned her attention to a distinguished guest at the marquis's residence. She had once seen the old marquis smiling obsequiously and bowing low before this guest. Jiang Yu figured that if she angered this distinguished guest, she would be thrown out of the marquis's residence as she wished. What she did not expect was that, in the guest's eyes, everything she did counted as seduction. And the guest not only allowed her to do it, but even encouraged her. During the days Crown Prince Pei Su spent recovering from his injuries at his maternal aunt's home, he encountered a brazen woman. She was stunningly beautiful, exactly the sort of woman Pei Su disliked most. What surprised him even more was that she actually dared to seduce him. At first, he only wanted to see what other tricks she could come up with. But later, he became immersed in it, enjoying every moment. He was annoyed by her clumsy seduction, her flirtatious looks, and her foolish schemes. But he could not help being moved by her confusion, her danger, and her failures.* Only in the end did he realize that everything had been Jiang Yu's plan. But by then, it was too late. In the dim candlelight, he raised a hand with an amused expression and caressed Jiang Yu's face, his voice cool. "I warned you from the very beginning: once certain things have begun, there is no turning back." Jiang Yu bit her lip and looked at him timidly. Outside the window, the wind had fallen still. Pei Su lowered his head and kissed the side of her neck, speaking in a casual tone. "If you don't want to die, then settle down and be my crown princess, hmm?" * "I tried to move you with my confusion, my danger, and my failures." By Borges Blurb for This County Princess Gets Whatever She Wants: Chongyang County Princess Cui Baoyin was the most notorious noblewoman in Dingjing. She was idle, arrogant, and willful. She loved feasts, amusements, fine clothes and, most of all, handsome young men. But she was fickle. When she liked someone, she was willing to spend a fortune just to make him smile. Rare books from the previous dynasty, antiques and curiosities: if he liked it, she would go to great lengths to find it. But once she stopped liking him, she would cast him aside like trash, too lazy even to look at him. Yet she was born with a beauty that dazzled all of Dingjing. And when she liked someone, her passion and sincerity were so intense it seemed she would offer up her very heart. Countless young men from noble families ground their teeth in hatred whenever they mentioned her, yet could not help being utterly enchanted by her. Everyone except Xie Lin, Marquis of Xuanping. The reason was simple: he hated trouble, and in his eyes, Cui Baoyin was the greatest trouble of all. But his friends did not know that he disliked Cui Baoyin. One day, after getting drunk, a friend half narrowed his eyes and teased him. "I heard Miss Wang sent you pastries the other day, but you gave them to her brother right in front of her? I'm curious. If even the legitimate daughter of the Langya Wang family isn't good enough for you, who could possibly be? Don't tell me... Chongyang County Princess Cui Baoyin?" Xie Lin: "..." "I spend my life doing good deeds, and you have to slander me like this?" Later, Xie Lin left the city to capture some rebels. Along the way, he came across Cui Baoyin being held hostage by bandits, so, out of basic human decency, he took care of those blind fools. After being rescued, Cui Baoyin watched Xie Lin walk away, having done his good deed and vanished without a trace. She clenched her fists and declared excitedly that she would win him over within two months. When Xie Lin heard about this, he sneered at first. "Hmph." Two months later, Xie Lin stopped Cui Baoyin, looking irritated. "I've been waiting for two months. Why haven't you won me over yet?" Cui Baoyin had already taken the hint after Xie Lin rejected her advances for the second time and decided to move on to someone else. She stared at him, baffled. "...What?" Theme: Find fulfillment in love without losing yourself.