The Pampered Attendant

As the legitimate daughter of a wealthy imperial merchant family in Jinling, Xu Wan was raised in luxury from childhood. With skin white as snow and beauty like a flower, she was captivating in every glance, and matchmakers were already crowding her door as soon as she came of age.

But the emperor happened to make a southern tour, and circumstances led to her becoming a favored concubine in the Eastern Palace.

Just because the crown princess's nephew looked at her one time too many, Xu Wan was forced to drink poisoned wine and died young.

Everyone said that the Seventh Prince, Zhao Yunyi, was a jade-faced demon, cold-blooded and ruthless.

But none of them saw him deep within the palace walls, holding a dagger inlaid with gold and jewels as he carved a peachwood hairpin for her himself. He placed it in her soft hair, then put the dagger in her palm.

"If anyone dares to hurt you, kill him. I'll hand you the knife."

The Seventh Prince ascended the throne. The deposed crown prince had treasonously colluded with a foreign power, and Zhao Yunyi had just sent funds to the soldiers in the north. Faced with a private treasury that was far from overflowing, he was now fretting over how to prepare a birthday gift for Xu Wan.

Thinking the provisions and pay for the northern troops were running short, Xu Wan brought the ledger for her own little treasury before Zhao Yunyi. "Your Majesty, I have money. Lots of money."

Zhao Yunyi could only rub his forehead in exasperation. It turned out the delicate little empress he held in the palm of his hand was a beauty made of gold. Not only was she unafraid of him, she even wanted to support him.

(This story will be locked on June 23, with chapters 30 to 37 going behind a paywall. Thank you for your support, dear readers!)

Reading notes:

1. Set in an imaginary world

2. The heroine has another identity

Blurb written on December 23, 2020.

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Blurb:

Before the incident, Wen Qinxin's parents sent her to her maternal uncle's residence in the capital, hoping her relatives could arrange a suitable marriage for her.

She had imagined what her future husband would be like. Someone with a gentle disposition, warm and refined like her cousin, would be ideal.

Who could have guessed that her cousin would betray her to save himself, tricking her into leaving the residence and offering her to Pei Yan, a powerful official with a notorious reputation and ties to the imperial family?

At a flower banquet beneath the moon, the princess ordered her to dance for no reason, attracting the emperor's attention.

The emperor thought she looked five parts like his most favored consort, Consort Yun, yet she was more delicate and beautiful, more dazzling than anyone, and Consort Yun could not compare. At once, he took an interest in her.

He was about to make her a consort when Pei Yan, the powerful official with his cold bearing and disdain for everyone, reached out and intercepted her.

Everyone said that Pei Yan's fiancée had been taken by the tyrant emperor years ago, so he had deliberately seized Wen Qinxin as a substitute.

Wen Qinxin did not want to be anyone's substitute, but Pei Yan caught her by the wrist and held her against him. His voice low and deep, he asked, "Do you truly not remember me?"

Wen Qinxin's clear eyes misted over. "I remember. Last time, I was tricked by someone. It wasn't intentional. Please, Sir, grant me a divorce."

Pei Yan said nothing, simply curving his lips in a faint smile as he removed the phoenix hairpin from her hair. "What if I can save your parents?"

After he rose to the highest position, the imperial treasury grew ever fuller, and the officials praised his boldness in lifting the maritime ban. But his trusted confidant privately joked, "His Majesty is really just in a hurry to clear his father-in-law's name and make the Empress happy, isn't he?"

Theme: Love has nothing to do with status