The blurb for my next novel, The Reluctant Bride, is at the end.
Zhao Shu saved a stand-in, never expecting him to overthrow the man he was replacing and become her secret pillow companion.
The stand-in chose the right side in a palace coup and rose to become an eunuch at the emperor's side.
Everyone knew that the eunuch Shen Huaiyan held power over the court and controlled the feudal lords in the emperor's name.
Even Zhao Shu had to swallow her pride and ask him for help. "I beg you, Chief Eunuch, in return for the life I saved back then, please ask the emperor to revoke his decree. Don't make me marry into the Xiongnu."
Shen Jingyan looked down at the woman kneeling before him. "Would the princess be willing to pay any price?"
The Xiongnu hated the Central Plains with all their hearts, and several princesses sent there for political marriages had already died. Zhao Shu would pay any price, as long as she didn't have to marry far away.
She gritted her teeth. "Anything!"
Shen Jingyan helped her to her feet, supporting her arm at the wrist. With measured deference, he said, "Since the princess doesn't wish to go to that barbarous land, then stay here in Chang'an."
To repay Shen Jingyan for saving her, Zhao Shu heard from a young eunuch that there was a portrait of a woman in his room.
She had her people find the woman in the portrait and place it in his room late that night.
When Shen Jingyan arrived at her door in the dead of night, Zhao Shu said, "I enjoy helping others find happiness, Chief Eunuch. You needn't come here in person to thank me."
The man before her looked as modest and gentle as jade, but heat smoldered in his eyes. He smiled darkly. "Since the princess is so kind, why not grant me this favor yourself?"
The officials were furious.
Rumor had it that Shen Jingyan had built a mansion in the suburbs, furnished it with priceless gold and jade, all to keep one woman there.
Blurb for The Reluctant Bride
Yin Yueniang brought her troubles upon herself when she decided to marry again.
She was born into a farming family in a small border town. To avoid being forced to marry her mistress's daughter off to an elderly prince as his second wife, Yin Yueniang took advantage of a wounded soldier, using both threats and persuasion to make him marry her.
She thought he would die, leaving her a widow with his compensation money to live on for the rest of her life.
She was secretly delighted, but to her surprise, he survived, distinguished himself in battle, and rose to the rank of third-grade general.
He had made his name, and she thought he would cast her aside and marry a virtuous woman. Instead, he followed every wedding rite, offered twelve hundred chests of betrothal gifts, bought her a grand mansion at great expense, and gave her over a hundred servants. He dressed her in a crown of gold and jade and a scarlet wedding gown.
Yin Yueniang was terrified. "There's no need for all this, General. I'm lowborn and insignificant. Just forget our marriage contract and marry a virtuous, beautiful woman. No one would dare say a word."
Everyone said Yin Yueniang was a fool. With a husband like that, what more could a woman want?
Yin Yueniang shifted aside. "Then you marry him. Go on, try marrying a lunatic."
Yin Yueniang regretted it so much she could have spat blood. She feared his bloodshot, murderous eyes. She feared how easily he could snap a fawn's neck with one hand. She feared the countless times he had chased her down when she ran away. And she feared the golden house he had built as a cage, all to satisfy his own desires.
Theme: A kind heart will be rewarded
