The Delicate Concubine's Fickle Heart

The story is complete. The new novel, Jiao Lian (The Whole Cast Gets Their Comeuppance), is now underway.

Crown Prince Fu Yan is strikingly handsome, proud, decisive, and cold. He dislikes having people near him, but he alone tolerates having Cui Jiao, the palace secretary, attend to him.

Everyone in the Eastern Palace knows that Cui Jiao is both a female official in the inner palace and his concubine.

The concubine was born into a wealthy and powerful family. Beautiful and delicate, she is charming whether she's smiling or pouting, and she willingly became a concubine, using every feminine wile to win his favor.

Fu Yan looks down on her, yet craves the tenderness and devotion she gives him.

Fu Yan knows he must not become ensnared in love. Once the Crown Princess enters the Eastern Palace, sending this concubine away or dismissing her will be a simple matter.

But Fu Yan finds himself reluctant to let her go. He wants to give her a proper title, so she can remain at his side with honor.

A few days before the wedding, Fu Yan warns her, "Once I have married the Crown Princess, I will arrange a place for you."

Kneeling before him, the beautiful woman looks up at him with moist, tender eyes, then lowers her head and nods obediently.

Fu Yan sighs. This concubine truly loves him to the depths of her heart.

But on the day of Fu Yan's wedding, he learns that the concubine has secretly had a lover all along. She is only waiting to be dismissed so they can run away together, and even hopes to have a son and a daughter with him!

In a fury, Fu Yan decides to kill the adulterer with his own hands.

But she stabs him to protect her lover!

How could he ever forgive her?

At first, Cui Jiao only wanted to seek the Crown Prince's protection and save her own life. She diligently served him while making plans for her and her brother's future.

When the time was right and her brother passed the imperial examinations, she would no longer have to serve this demanding, vicious master. She could leave the Eastern Palace and make a life of her own.

On a snowy night, Cui Jiao and her brother secretly boarded a boat bound for Yizhou. Once they headed south and reached Yizhou, she would be able to make her own way in the world.

Halfway through the journey, the boat came to an abrupt halt. Flames filled the sky and surrounded Cui Jiao's vessel. Through the door and windows, Fu Yan's icy voice carried over the water. "Cui, stab him twice now, and I will let bygones be bygones."

Reading notes:

1. An arrogant Crown Prince who falls hard x a carefree, flirtatious beauty

2. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first, happy ending

3. The heroine and her brother are not related by blood

4. Set in an imaginary version of the Tang dynasty

------ Seeking advance readers for Jiao Lian ------

[Also known as: After Being Disowned, She Marries the Aloof Chief Minister (The Whole Cast Gets Their Comeuppance)] The blurb was saved on June 8, 2023.

Xue Nong was raised as an adopted daughter in the Wen family for seventeen years.

Everyone said being adopted by this wealthy, powerful family was a blessing most people could never hope for in several lifetimes.

She had to be grateful to the Wen family, even though her adoptive mother had taken her in only because a fortune-teller said Xue Nong's good fortune would bring her children. Her adoptive parents had even once considered abandoning her.

When her adoptive father complained that the household embroiderers couldn't make clothes to his taste, she mastered embroidery that won everyone's admiration.

When her adoptive mother was often sick and frail, she studied medicine.

She was as gentle and considerate as she could be toward her younger siblings.

Yet she never received even the slightest warmth in return.

Her adoptive parents treated her like a poor relative who had come to sponge off them.

Her younger brother never saw her as family and treated her coldly.

Her younger sister found her mild-mannered nature tiresome and irritating.

Xue Nong had once pinned her hopes on her fiance, Wang Yun, passing the examinations and marrying her, so she could finally leave the Wen family.

At her younger sister's coming-of-age ceremony, she saw Wang Yun hiding beneath a tree with her sister, confessing their feelings to each other.

"I want to marry you, but I can only marry Xue Nong."

Her adoptive mother said to someone, "If not for Xue Nong, they would be a perfect match."

At last, Xue Nong stood up for herself and asked Wang Yun to break off their engagement. Even though Wang Yun thought she was being willful and acting out of spite, she refused to turn back. As for the Wen family, if she asked to leave, they might be glad to see her go.

On the day Wang Yun passed the examinations, Xue Nong drank a few too many at the celebratory banquet.

She had meant to work up the courage to tell her adoptive parents she was leaving, but in a daze, she was helped into the room of Wang Yun's mentor, Chief Minister Shen Yanqiu.

When she woke up sober, Xue Nong realized she had made a terrible mistake. She fled in a panic, and as she crossed a broken bridge, she stepped into empty air.

As she sank beneath the water, the voices of many people flashed through her mind.

"He and your sister love each other. You should have brought them together..."

"Think of your younger siblings. You can't be so willful. Aren't you the most obedient one?"

"If you leave the household, who else would want you besides us?"

Before she lost consciousness, Xue Nong thought that if she had another life, she wanted parents and family who loved her, and a husband who cherished her. If she couldn't have that, then she would rather not have another life at all.

The Wen family had lost an adopted daughter no one cared about.

The third daughter who had gone missing from the second branch of the Shen family had been found. Though she had suffered a head injury and lost her memories, the entire Shen family doted on her.

Everyone praised the third young lady as the most precious pearl in the capital. Few young men in the capital were worthy of her, and yet there were so many suitors that they nearly trampled her doorstep. Even Wang Yun, the Wen family's legitimate son and the new examination graduate, shamelessly came to ask for her hand.

After recovering her memories, Xue Nong often kept her distance from Shen Yanqiu.

At lamplight, the pale and handsome Chief Minister leaned against the daybed by the window, gazing steadily at the nervous yet lovely young woman before him. "You want to get married?"

Xue Nong bit her red lip and murmured, "Mm," without daring to look at him.

Shen Yanqiu beckoned her over and drew her onto his lap, gently patting her slender back as he coaxed her. "Since you call me your older brother, don't marry anyone else. Marry me instead, all right?"

Xue Nong remembered their first meeting, when Shen Yanqiu had given her a jar of candy and soothed her in the same way one would a child.

"When you think something tastes bitter, eat a piece of candy, and it will taste sweet."

Reading notes:

(1) The leads are not related by blood. The male lead is ten years older than the female lead.

(2) Pairing: Aloof Chief Minister x a lonely, love-starved sweetheart

(3) Everyone except the male lead gets their comeuppance

(4) One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first, happy ending

Theme: People remain, the waters flow on, and this love will never end