Serving the Golden Branch

[The complete story costs only a few dollars. Thank you for supporting the official release. Please read the content warnings carefully.]

Please add my upcoming stories “Firefly's Joy” and “The Princess and Her Shadow Guard” to your collections. Blurbs below~

Blurb:

[Spoiled and willful × humble, devoted dog. A story about taming a dog]

On her wedding night, Song Luoshu, the Grand Princess of Beian, killed her own groom.

On the way back to the palace, rain poured down in sheets.

On the damp stone road, a dying young man grabbed the hem of her skirt and begged her to save his life.

That night, the ivory prayer beads were stained with blood. She looked down at the boy's pale, unforgettable face and sneered. “Fine. Become my slave, and I'll save you.”

*

Yan Chao, commander of the Qianyu Bureau, is cold-hearted and ruthless. He commands the world's fiercest beasts, able to make tigers bow their heads and lions lower theirs.

The only shameful episode in the life of this young commander, who rose to high office at an early age, is that he once served the spoiled, overbearing Grand Princess as a slave.

A new Crown Prince is appointed, and the Grand Princess supposedly loses her power.

Yet Yan Chao asks the emperor for an imperial decree arranging his marriage to her.

Everyone says Yan Chao is doing this to confine her to the bedchamber, torment and humiliate her, and avenge the years he spent as her slave.

But on their wedding night, the ruthless, heartless commander known to the world is kneeling at Song Luoshu's feet, removing her shoes and socks himself. His dark, deep-set eyes are filled with an infatuation and attachment no one else has ever seen.

As the curtains fall, the man dares not move. He only begs in a hoarse voice, “Your Highness, please be gentle with your servant.”

[Important content warnings]

1. A devoted-dog story. The male lead is extremely submissive in front of the heroine from beginning to end. Please avoid if that bothers you.

2. BG romance. The heroine controls the male lead emotionally. His dominance depends on her permission. Both are sexually inexperienced.

3. The heroine never actually loses her power; other people only think she has.

4. Entirely fictional setting, so please don't nitpick historical details. The culture is open-minded.

[Upcoming story 1: “Firefly's Joy”]

* Gentle beauty × powerful, tragic madman. Arranged marriage to love, with a healing romance.

Jiang Dianying, the Junzhu of Luochun, is peerlessly beautiful. Raised in the inner chambers from childhood, she devoted herself to studying medicine under her maternal grandmother. Only after reaching adulthood did she enter the world, treating patients at clinics throughout the capital.

She has eyes that look upon all living beings with compassion, as well as miraculous skills that can bring the dead back to life. Everyone who talks about the Junzhu is full of gratitude, and they quietly call her “Little Guanyin.”

In the twelfth year of Yongping, an imperial decree orders her to marry Prince An.

Jiang Dianying remembers Prince An. At a palace banquet, she once glimpsed him from afar. He had been drinking with his head lowered, his white sleeve falling as he coughed a mouthful of bright red blood onto a plain white handkerchief.

She looks at the imperial decree and thinks of the rumors in the capital that Prince An will die young. She sighs softly.

*

Lin Shufeng has fought for three years, clawing his way to distinction from a mountain of corpses. At last, he has trampled underfoot all those who once tormented him.

His hands are stained with the blood of his father and brothers. Beneath his black iron mask is a handsome face as cold as jade.

He is a demon in human form, a living harbinger of death.

When Lin Shufeng learns that the emperor has arranged a marriage for him, he doesn't care. It's just a woman. He can keep her tucked away in his estate.

Later, watching Jiang Dianying's quiet, gentle expression, he thinks she deserves a good husband, not someone as filthy, despicable, cold-blooded, and heartless as him.

Knowing he won't live past twenty, he finds someone for her to marry after his death. But when he sees her being helped into a carriage by another man, his eyes suddenly turn red.

For the first time, someone who has never cared about life or death wants to go on living.

Ten years, twenty years... No, it's not enough.

He wants her beside him for this whole life, in this life and the next, for all eternity. She must have no one but Lin Shufeng.

[Upcoming story 2: “The Princess and Her Shadow Guard”]

* Bright, willful princess × devoted shadow guard. Also known as “Reborn, My Little Dog's Cover Is Blown”

In her previous life, Shen Lingchun, the Grand Princess, exhausted herself trying to help her young brother ascend the throne. She and her husband loathed each other and schemed against one another, until she died by his cup of poisoned wine.

She died full of hatred. A strand of bitter resentment clung to her soul, and she saw a tall man kneeling before her coffin, sobbing in grief. At his feet lay a half-open cloth bag containing her husband's bloody head.

Shen Lingchun stared for a long moment before remembering that he was a shadow guard in the princess's residence, named Yanjiu.

That day, she had quarreled with her husband and was in a bad mood. He happened to come to report to her, and she liked his looks and figure, so on a whim she took him for her own pleasure.

Now, thinking back, she only remembers him kneeling by the bed, serving her with restrained obedience. Even when she played with him until he bled, he never cried out in pain or begged for mercy.

*

When she opens her eyes, Shen Lingchun has become the sickly legitimate daughter of a marquis's household. It is the second year after the Grand Princess's death.

She thinks that in this life she should enjoy herself more. Remembering the man's silhouette before her coffin, she decides Yanjiu was quite useful in her previous life, so she goes to find him.

But can someone tell her why the silent shadow guard who only knew how to serve her in her previous life is actually the renowned General Su'an, who has long appeared in public wearing a mask?

*

Inside the red gauze curtains, Shen Lingchun reclines on a soft couch and takes a grape Yanjiu has just peeled for her.

The tall man, usually cold-faced and murderous, kneels beside the bed, breathing unevenly, his body covered with marks from her rough treatment.

“How did you recognize me?” Shen Lingchun asks lazily.

The man lowers his eyes and answers respectfully in a low voice, “A dog naturally recognizes its master.”

Theme: Protect one another and find a happy love