Breaking the Beauty

This novel will not be abandoned. Starting in September, it will update twice a week until it is complete.

On the eve of the marriage alliance between Xiao Yinlin, Prince of Huainan, and the Pingyang Marquis's household, the bride-to-be suddenly falls gravely ill, on the verge of death.

Yet Xiao Yinlin holds immense power at court, and the marquis's household cannot bear to give up the extraordinary wealth and status that this marriage alliance would bring them so easily. In their panic, they push forward Shen Mingshu, a beautiful concubine-born daughter of the family, to take her place.

No one knows that Shen Mingshu has a widower living in her heart. Once this is all over, she plans to return and spend the rest of her life keeping watch over his memorial tomb.

So, to avoid giving herself away, Shen Mingshu has no choice but to work hard at imitating her legitimate elder sister's spoiled ways. Every day, she hopes her sister will recover soon so she can be switched back.

But several months later, on the very day her “widower” returns to the capital from the frontier, Shen Mingshu discovers to her shock that he is the Prince of Huainan's nephew. At the same time, her identity as the princess consort is exposed before everyone, throwing the entire court into an uproar.

Shen Mingshu lies prostrate on the ground, tears shimmering in her eyes as she begs the Prince of Huainan for forgiveness. “It was all my fault. I beg Your Highness to spare my family, and... him.”

Xiao Yinlin stares down at her, gritting his teeth with a cold laugh. “If I punish you, what will become of the child we have yet to welcome into the world?”

That night, beneath the warm hibiscus curtains.

The man, usually cold-hearted and expressionless, has a rare fierceness in his eyes. He keeps kissing the woman in his arms on her soft lips. “Don't hide from me. As long as Meimei forgets him, even if you ask me to pluck the stars from the sky for you, I will do it. All right?”

★★★★★★★★★

Reader's Guide:

1. Both leads are each other's only partners. The male lead acts like a jerk early on, but later bends for love. This is a story about the heroine training her man.

2. There are a few minor household-intrigue plotlines, but not many. Everything serves the romance between the leads.

3. If you don't like this story, you can click the X in the upper right to leave. Please don't make personal attacks. Important note: the author bites.

★★★★★★★★★

Coming soon: a new historical romance. Please add it to your library!

"Secretly Carrying the Chief Councilor's Baby"

In her previous life, Li Xiaoning, a merchant's daughter, married into a duke's household. Her husband and in-laws looked down on her humble origins and treated her with contempt at every turn. In the end, she met a miserable fate, losing both her head and her life.

Given a second chance, she can forget being a marquis's wife. Whoever wants the position can have it. In this life, she only wants to live freely and follow her heart.

Using illness as an excuse, she moves to the countryside, hundreds of miles from the capital, relying on memories of her previous life. There's a young tutor here, dressed in a disheveled blue robe and handsome as a jade tree. His looks, physique, and learning make him the perfect candidate to father a child.

But after watching him for days, she realizes he is proud, aloof, and difficult to approach.

Li Xiaoning has a sudden idea. Pretending to be an orphan with no one to rely on, she gets her wish and moves into the tutor's home.

Who would have thought that although the tutor is in the prime of his life, he is full of talk about propriety and honor, and so upright that he seems to take it too far?

Li Xiaoning has to use every trick she knows to finally seduce him into sleeping with her. One day, when they are deeply in love, the man says he has important business to attend to and must leave on a long journey. When he returns, he will marry her.

Li Xiaoning rests a hand on her slightly rounded belly and smiles as she nods. “All right.” The next day, she leaves him a generous sum of money and slips away.

But two years later, at a banquet, the “tutor” she had seduced and abandoned has transformed into Xie Yu, the young and powerful Chief Councilor of the dynasty.

Li Xiaoning is stunned.

Where is the poor, destitute tutor she was promised? And isn't this child hers alone?

The man glares darkly at the toddler playing by her feet, his voice stern. “Under the laws of this dynasty, marriage fraud and inducing someone to have a child are both serious crimes punishable by beheading. Yaoyao, shall I help you remember who this child's father is? Hmm?”

From the male lead's perspective:

When the emperor orders him to conceal his identity and investigate a far-reaching corruption case, Xie Yu, the Chief Councilor, meets a beautiful woman with a tragic past. She repeatedly shows him her “favor.” On the surface, he rejects her without a second thought, while inwardly despising her shameless behavior. But somehow, his feelings gradually change. Just as he has grown to enjoy her company and promises to marry her, she vanishes into thin air.

He searches heaven and earth, but cannot find her.

For the first time, the usually cold-hearted Xie Yu tastes the agony of a broken heart.

Two years later, he is invited to visit a friend's home. Through layer upon layer of curtains in the courtyard, he catches sight of his “vanished” wife, smiling as she helps a toddler with unsteady steps learn to walk. The child's face is unmistakably a copy of his own when he was young.

Xie Yu, who realizes he has been toyed with and used as a donor, nearly grinds his teeth to dust in that moment.

Theme: Even when mired in hardship, one can stay hopeful and face life bravely.