The Useless Beauty's Guide to Winning Without Trying

New story: Comforting Words for My Beloved. The blurb is below. Little masters, please stop by and add it to your collection!

A timid, sweet beauty with a soft heart vs. a ruthless, born monster with a controlling streak (FP)

- Liao Tao's life was worth next to nothing. Five taels of silver could buy it.

- Liao Tao's life was worth a fortune, too. Crown Prince Pei spent all his wealth just to keep her safe and healthy, and help her sleep peacefully every night.

The fourteenth year of Qianyuan, in the depths of winter. Famine had ravaged the land. To buy coffins for her father and brother, Liao Tao sold herself to a distinguished visitor from the capital for five taels of silver.

The visitor was elegant and upright, like an immortal from heaven. Liao Tao had seen him execute corrupt officials and purge wicked bureaucrats. He was the finest magistrate under heaven. Then she heard his attendants call him "Your Highness," and froze on the spot.

Crown Prince Pei beckoned her over, stroking the back of her snowy-white neck as he called her Taotao in a husky voice.

Everyone said the Crown Prince was gentle and compassionate, like Guanyin reborn. He punished bandits, executed traitors, beheaded corrupt officials, and ruled by the Mandate of Heaven. But only Liao Tao knew how volatile he was, how cold and taciturn. Most days, he liked to make her copy Buddhist sutras.

When Liao Tao obediently copied them, he said she was too stupid and inflexible.

When she timidly told him her hand hurt, he said she only knew how to flatter him and would never amount to anything.

Liao Tao had lost count of how many times Crown Prince Pei had called her foolish beyond measure and a piece of rotten wood that could never be carved. She didn't even know she was pregnant until after he did.

On the eve of the Crown Princess's arrival in the Eastern Palace, Liao Tao finally had a moment of cleverness. Afraid the poor little life inside her might die before it was born, she came up with a plan in her panic: she ran!

Liao Tao would never know that on the night she disappeared, Crown Prince Pei stained his hands with a kinsman's blood, killed his father, and took the throne. He mobilized the entire army to search for her. When he found her, all he said was, "Don't be afraid, Taotao. I'm here."

Later, Liao Tao held her belly and timidly asked, "Does the Crown Prince plan to kill the mother and keep the child?"

Pei Huaijin mocked her for imagining things, then gently stamped her face with a seal.

The imperial seal was precious, and Taotao held it with trembling hands. Eight vivid red characters stood out on her cheek:

By the Mandate of Heaven, may you live long and prosper.

From Crown Prince Pei's perspective:

The first time he saw her, snow was falling. Starving corpses littered the ground. She knelt by the roadside, white as snow, crying at everyone she saw. Pei Huaijin had never met anyone who cried so much. She didn't just cry, she followed him around, insisting over and over that she wanted to repay his kindness.

At first, he had no intention of taking in a woman who was utterly useless. Then he saw her curled up in the corridor of his inn, gnawing on a flatbread. She looked so much like the white Persian cat he'd strangled as a child that, on a whim, Pei Huaijin let her stay.

His father had said more than once that Pei Huaijin was cold and numb, a born monster. Then Liao Tao appeared. Beneath the moon, she made a naive wish, her eyes shining as she said she hoped the world would be at peace, with no more wars.

At that moment, for the first time, Pei Huaijin wanted to make her wish come true.

Check out the historical romance I'm currently updating in my author profile. If you like it, please take a look. Masters passing by, please add it to your collection:

Comforting Words for My Beloved

A timid, soft-hearted sweetheart vs. a cold, ruthless FP, a flower on a high peak

- A battlefield of rival suitors

- The heroine is somewhat adored by everyone

Xiaoshan was born a little foolish. She couldn't handle farm work, and her embroidery was even worse. She could turn a pair of mandarin ducks into a pair of ducks. For a while, she thought she'd never get married.

Then, when she was fourteen, Xiaoshan rescued a man while washing clothes by the river. He was so beautiful, like the bright sun and moon, compassionate and lovely. Xiaoshan fell in love with him at first sight.

From then on, Xiaoshan stayed by his side and looked after him like a devoted little wife. At last, one day, his wounds began to heal, and he slowly woke up.

Xiaoshan blinked her big, sparkling eyes and asked softly, "Will you live with me in harmony, as husband and wife, for the rest of our lives?"

"Live in harmony as husband and wife, for the rest of our lives" was something the village aunties had taught her to say to the man she loved.

But the man only sneered, accusing her of using her kindness to manipulate him and calling her delusional.

Xiaoshan wasn't! She hadn't done that!

She didn't know what to do, so she could only hide in a corner, biting her finger and shedding tears.

She thought she'd never love him again. With her heart set, she turned and ran off with the oil peddler from the foot of the mountain.

Xiaoshan thought she would never have anything to do with him again. She still thought so even when she was locked away in a golden house.

Xiaoshan couldn't believe that this man, so bright and noble he seemed to shine alongside the sun and moon, could be so sinister and violent beneath the surface.

He wouldn't let Xiaoshan leave her room, or even glance at anyone else. His heart was cold, made of stone.

Then one day, Xiaoshan noticed her belly suddenly swell up like a ball with a "pop." She was so scared she burst into tears.

Just then, a coup broke out in the palace, throwing the capital into chaos.

Clutching her belly, Xiaoshan huddled inside a narrow cabinet, trembling with fear. The first person she thought of was the man who had made her feel both terror and love.

That night,

Yan Gui's cavalry surrounded the entire capital, all to find one woman.

_

One day, later on,

Xiaoshan nestled in Yan Gui's arms and asked with a silly smile, "When did you first fall in love with me?" She was quite pleased with herself.

From the very first moment.

He thought he had fallen in love with this beautiful, foolish little good-for-nothing the instant he saw her.

Xiaoshan would never know how Yan Gui had knelt on the nine thousand steps to heaven on the night she fell gravely ill, begging the gods in the great hall for mercy.

Begging them to send her back to him.

Little bonus scene:

Yan Gui and Xiaoshan had a pair of adorable twins.

The older one was a boy, the younger a girl, but both were domineering and willful. Who could they have inherited that from?

One day, Xiaoshan was teaching them to read, but she barely knew any characters herself. Afraid the two little ones would laugh at her, she took one in each hand and went straight to Yan Gui's study.

He left the two children under the desk, held Xiaoshan in his arms, wrote two lines, and read them to her:

"My wife is still young,

I soothe my beloved with tender words."

He loved this girl with all his heart, just as he had when he first saw her, smiling brightly with her eyes curved into crescents.

From then on, he was bound by a love he could never sever.

Theme: The country comes first, the individual second.