My Imperial Uncle Loves Me Like His Life Depends on It

Completed. ‖ Next up: the upcoming novel "The Chancellor's Concubine". Scroll down for the blurb.

Regent King Huo Yanzheng wields immense power, but is violent by nature. He is past thirty and still unmarried, so everyone assumes he has no interest in women.

That is, until the Marquis's estate is confiscated and the delicate young princess is demoted to a brothel prostitute.

Before she can even be sent to the brothel, Huo Yanzheng takes her back to his manor.

Mu Taotao asks him, "Uncle, who will I be from now on?"

Huo Yanzheng strokes her head. "You'll always be Princess Yong'an."

He spoils her, indulges her, and gives her whatever she wants, treating her better than her father or brothers ever did...

*

Everyone says she's incredibly lucky.

First, she was cherished by the old marquis, and then she became the apple of the regent king's eye.

On the day she comes of age, her heart full of joy, she says, "No man in the world compares to you. Why don't you marry me, Uncle?"

Huo Yanzheng looks at her, frowning slightly. She gathers her courage and asks again, "Would you?"

He freezes, emotions churning in his eyes. After a long silence, he replies, "I can't."

*

Only later does she learn that, as a young man, Huo Yanzheng turned the capital upside down trying to marry her aunt.

He gave up everything for her aunt, then gained power over the entire realm for her sake.

*

Mu Taotao gives up on him and asks Huo Yanzheng to choose a husband for her. But year after year, he searches, and not one young man in the whole capital makes the cut.

Mu Taotao grows impatient and storms into the council chamber. "Uncle, you can't pick anyone out of all these young men. I'll find one myself tomorrow."

Huo Yanzheng panics on the spot. After a long silence, he asks her in front of the court officials, "Would it be all right if I married you?"

[Reader's Guide]

1. The hero is fifteen years older than the heroine. Don't read if the age gap bothers you.

2. Both are sexually inexperienced; one-on-one romance; happy ending.

3. The hero and heroine are not blood-related.

4. His feelings for her aunt are a misunderstanding.

Upcoming novel: "The Chancellor's Concubine", a groveling-after-the-breakup romance. Please add it to your collection!

At first, she was a noblewoman of distinguished birth, the intended crown princess, and the future empress.

He, meanwhile, was nothing but a castoff with no power, no status, and no home.

After she offered him her whole heart, she callously crushed it and cast it into the mud.

*

Later, he became the all-powerful chancellor.

She, on the other hand, was reduced to a mere slave, kneeling before him.

His thin lips parted. "Choose one: die, or serve me."

Li Tang chose the latter.

She learned to endure, to bow her head, and to do everything his way.

She always believed he still loved her, and that he only resented what had happened back then. One day, she thought, they would be able to mend their broken relationship.

*

Until the day of the palace banquet, when the emperor, drunk, pointed at her and ordered her to serve him.

Without hesitation, he replied, "She's just a plaything for amusement. If Your Majesty wants her, I'll send her over tonight..."

Only then did Li Tang finally realize that his love for her had been nothing but her own wishful thinking.

Upcoming novel: "Willing to Be the Empress Dowager's Favorite", featuring a ruthless young empress dowager x a pure-hearted, aloof vice minister. Please add it to your collection!

Fu Changying died in the depths of winter, in the Yong Lane.

She had risen from favored consort to empress to the youngest empress dowager. She had once enjoyed unmatched glory, but in the end, the man she loved spent his wedding night with someone else while her corpse lay cold in the snow!

Fu Changying thought, if she could live her life over, she would never make the same mistakes again!

Heaven seemed to hear her. When she awoke, she found herself back in the days when she was still a favored consort. The faithless man was teaching her how to seduce the old emperor and whisper in his ear.

A wicked plan took shape in her mind. She would make this man taste betrayal for himself!

Across the capital, the only person who could stand against Yuwen Yu was Xiao Shaoling, the young man who had become vice minister at an early age.

*

Xiao Shaoling was born into a distinguished family. He had studied the classics and cultivated the manners of a gentleman, and he never judged people by his personal preferences.

There was only one exception: the emperor's favored consort, Fu Changying. She used her looks to manipulate men, not only leading the emperor to lose his senses and recklessly tamper with the succession, but also carrying on an improper relationship with the heir of the Yuwen family!

He thought such a dangerous beauty could not be allowed to remain, but he should at least try to reason with her first.

Before he could even begin, she gazed at him with teary, aggrieved eyes. "I know you're going to say that using my looks to serve others makes me a danger to the realm, but I've never been educated and can barely read. I'm not like you, learned and well-read, with a head full of all those great principles..."

After holding back for a long while, Xiao Shaoling finally said, "I can teach you, but you can't keep acting the way you used to."

Fu Changying: "All right."

Later, Xiao Shaoling went to teach her as promised, only to find Fu Changying wrapped in sheer gauze. She pulled a book of a hundred erotic poems from beneath it and handed it to him. Her slender finger traced his palm, sending a tingling sensation through him. "Minister Xiao, teach me this book today."

He clutched the scandalous book, burning hot in his hands. His face turned ashen, but his ears were bright red.

She had no intention of reforming herself. She had simply changed the target of her seduction!

A recommendation from a fellow author: the period novel "I Feed the Big Bad in the Seventies" by Da Mo Feng Ling.

[Book Transmigration] Clever, optimistic sweetheart x ruthless, quiet big bad

Shen Yingying transmigrates into a period novel.

Her original character only gets one line in the story, meant to show how cold the big bad was as a child:

"The child was as skinny as a little monkey, curled up in the corner, already dead. Lu Bin glanced at her coldly and pulled the tattered blanket off her."

So when Shen Yingying opens her eyes, she sees the little villain crouching in front of her, holding out a dirty hand.

Shen Yingying: "..."

Lu Bin: "..."

She scrambles to her feet and offers him the blanket with both hands. "Big brother, here."

Lu Bin snorts and walks away.

*

Lu Bin never expected that little girl to cling to him.

Every day, he comes home covered in injuries to find her crouching by the door, holding out half a roasted sweet potato for him.

He coldly tells her to get lost. She sets the sweet potato down and runs off.

Until one day, he doesn't see her and can't help going to look. He finds her pinned to the ground, being beaten.

The bullies spot him, let go of her, and get up to leave.

He picks up the sweet potato from the ground and eats it, dust and all, without even peeling it.

He has eaten her food, so from now on, he's her big brother.

He cracks his knuckles and knocks the bullies back to the ground.

*

The big bad Lu Bin loses his only family member from the start and becomes the village's jinx. He can't find work or food, and the village beauty falsely accuses him of being a lecher. He leaves Lu Family Village in bitterness.

Over a decade later, Lu Bin becomes a business tycoon who shakes the world. He returns for revenge, snaps his fingers, and Lu Family Village disappears.

Shen Yingying's little scheme is simple: he's the perfect tragic, beautiful, and powerful man. Get in early, and hooking up with a big shot is the best deal around.

But she never expected that, after getting her wish and calling him big brother for over a decade, he'd eventually forbid her from calling him that.

He pins her into a corner and looks at her calmly. "Call me husband."

Theme: Stay true to yourself. Don't cling too tightly to anything, and you'll become a better version of yourself.