The Beauty's Grace

The main story is complete. Coming soon: The Eldest Princess of Jingguo. My next novel. Synopsis below ↓ The Ning'an Marquis household falls into ruin overnight, and the pampered second daughter, Qi Fanyin, is forced to become a government courtesan. Men who once coveted her beauty rub their hands together, waiting for a chance to defile this otherworldly beauty who has fallen into the mud. The day she escapes the brothel, she runs into Gu Heng in the snow. Everyone says Gu Heng is sinister and cruel, and her father's sworn enemy. He looks down at her, with nowhere left to turn, and asks expressionlessly, "Come with me, or stay?" She thinks that being Gu Heng's woman would be better than being dragged back to the brothel and turned into a beauty shared by a thousand men. So she chooses to go with him. She has always thought Gu Heng helped her because he wanted a night of pleasure with her. But years after she escapes him, she sees his flushed brows and eyes again in the late-spring rain of the south. He is as cold as ever, but his eyes are tinged red. When he speaks, there's a hint of grievance in his voice. "Yinyin, why did you leave me?" The Eldest Princess of Jingguo The Eldest Princess of Jingguo's husband is dead. Everyone says she's in a terrible spot now. She isn't of royal blood, her relationship with the emperor has grown distant over the past two years, and she has little favor at court and no children. No one knows how difficult her life will be from now on. Someone kindly arranges another marriage for her. That night, the emperor bursts into her room, smelling of wine. He leans close and says, "Elder sister, you mustn't marry anyone else. I'll protect you." In that moment, she sees something in the young emperor's eyes that shouldn't be there: a man's possessiveness toward a woman. Li Huai has never forgotten the year he was eight, when Prince Qin staged a coup. The rebels killed his parents and burned down the palace. When he had nowhere left to turn, an insignificant laundry maid from the palace saved him. She stole buns for him, took beatings for him, snatched food from refugees, and suffered abuse at the hands of the rebels... With her frail spine and slender body, she escorted him all the way to his maternal grandfather's home in Longxi. Later, with his grandfather's support, he drove back the rebels and ascended the throne. He called her "Elder Sister," the name he had used for her while they were in exile, and granted her the title of Eldest Princess of Jingguo. Knowing she liked the eldest son of the Chen family, he arranged their marriage. He always thought he honored and respected her because he was an emperor who repaid kindness. Until one night at a banquet, Chen Shutong put an arm around her waist as they walked past him. He heard jealousy roar inside him. He finally understood: wanting her was a man's desire for a woman. He endured the turmoil in his heart and buried his desire deep inside. Two years later, he heard her husband call her "nothing but a used-up shoe. Why would I regret leaving her?" The young emperor flew into a rage. He could not bear to see what he treasured like a jewel discarded like trash. So he killed her husband. Content warnings: 1. The woman is seven years older than the man. 2. The woman is not a virgin, while the man is. 3. Forced possession and melodramatic tropes. Theme: Even when life is a mess, live it brilliantly.