Must I Marry for Peace Too?

Original title: The Hostage 1. The Battle of Chenliu ended in a great victory for Northern Chu. At the victory banquet, the once-cherished Crown Prince of Southern Yan was forced to attend as a hostage of the defeated nation. Swallowing the humiliation of defeat and the blood in his mouth, Fu Xueqing bent his pride and dragged his sickly body through a den of wolves. His father hoped he would die in Northern Chu so his brothers could take his place. The Northern Chu court hoped he would make a mistake, giving them an excuse to start another war with his life. But Fu Xueqing refused to give them what they wanted. Shen Jiao, Regent of Northern Chu, commanded three hundred thousand iron cavalry, controlled the young emperor, and held power over the entire court. He was the only person who could keep Fu Xueqing alive. Fu Xueqing plotted carefully and set up a scheme to get himself into Shen Jiao’s bed. The peerless, brilliant immortal descended from the heavens became a ruthless demon in the eighteenth level of hell. 2. The emperor of Southern Yan was critically ill. As crown prince, Fu Xueqing had to return home to seize the throne. On the night before his departure, Fu Xueqing invited Shen Jiao to drink with him. He drugged the wine with a sleeping potion, and the regent drank it without suspicion. Fu Xueqing sat up all night with a dagger clutched in his hand, but couldn’t bring himself to go through with the plan. He had pretended to play along to stay alive, but in the end, the other man had warmed his heart. Before dawn, Fu Xueqing left the city in secret with his trusted followers. But Shen Jiao realized what was happening ahead of time and gave chase. As the two armies faced each other, Fu Xueqing dropped his gentle facade. His immortal-like face was full of cold indifference. “Commander Shen, between us, it was only an act. Now that the play is over, why keep clinging to me?” 3. Everyone in Northern Chu knew that the Crown Prince of Southern Yan had seduced and abandoned the regent, using him and then tossing him aside. Everyone said the regent would whip the three armies into shape and one day crush Southern Yan, piling the heads of its crown prince into a capital-sized mound. On the day of the coup in Southern Yan, Shen Jiao indeed stormed the imperial palace with a contingent of troops. In a private chamber unseen by anyone, Shen Jiao cut off the head of the Southern Yan ruler and said through gritted teeth, “Choose, Your Majesty: marriage or war.” Fu Xueqing leaned closer, his fingertips lightly brushing Shen Jiao’s lips. His eyes shimmered with alluring light. “I happen to be in need of an empress. Would Commander Shen be willing to take his place in the central palace?” [A beautiful, sickly captive who lies through his teeth and schemes at every turn × a fierce, untamed lone wolf who loves to claim what’s his. The captive is a demon from the eighteenth level of hell who has grown a heart. The aggressor is the ultimate pretty-face fanatic, who loves beauty over the empire and rages helplessly on his path to becoming more and more unhinged.] I love you beneath a clear sky and bright moon, and I love you in all your filth. I want both the immortal from the heavens and the demon from the underworld., Shen Jiao. Reading guide 1. One-on-one romance. The aggressor and the captive have only each other. 2. A sweet story, a sweet story, a sweet story. Important things must be said three times. 3. The dynasty is fictional, and the setting blends various influences. Please don’t nitpick the history. 4. Authorized illustration by artist Pingzi Huamo. 5. Written on 2022/4/13, screenshot saved. Upcoming story The Auspicious Hour Has Arrived, [sinister ghost aggressor × timid, honest captive] The aggressor wasn’t a good person when alive and wasn’t a good ghost after death. He’s a vile dog with no morals or manners. The captive dropped out of high school and works in a factory. He’s an honest, foolish, easy target who can only scurry away like a fluffy little thing when provoked. In the summer of 2013, Chen Sanshui overheard his adoptive parents talking and learned that he was actually the child of a wealthy family. His adoptive mother had secretly switched the newborn Chen Sanshui with her own son so her biological child could live a better life. After learning the truth, Chen Sanshui quit his factory job and, full of anger and hurt, secretly left his adoptive parents to go to Shu'nan City and find his birth parents. Chen Sanshui was successfully reunited with the Zhou family, where he lived under the same roof as Zhou Feng, the fake young master who had taken his place. Zhou Feng was only half a month older than him, but he was talented and handsome. They said he had gotten into Tsinghua University at fourteen. Chen Sanshui, on the other hand, had dropped out of high school and gone to work in a factory with people from his village at sixteen. He was jealous of and hated this fake older brother, resenting him for stealing his life and envying how easily he had it. Even after Chen Sanshui returned, Zhou Feng shamelessly continued to live in the Zhou family home. But gradually, Chen Sanshui realized that things weren’t quite as he’d imagined… The servants in the house walked silently, appearing and disappearing like ghosts. His parents secretly burned yellow paper in corners, then put the ashes into his water cup. The neighbors were all friendly and warm to his face, but the moment they turned away, they revealed expressions of chilling malice… Even worse, shadowy, faceless ghosts kept crawling into Chen Sanshui’s bed in the dead of night, leaving him a wreck again and again. To stay alive, Chen Sanshui could only pretend not to know anything. This villa… no, everyone in this neighborhood was abnormal. There were ghosts here. The only seemingly normal person was his adoptive older brother, Zhou Feng. Trembling, Chen Sanshui sought out Zhou Feng and whispered conspiratorially, “There are ghosts here. Let’s escape together, okay?” Zhou Feng’s eyes widened in surprise. A grotesquely exaggerated smile flashed across his face and vanished as he asked again and again, “Are we escaping together?” Chen Sanshui nodded hard. “This place is so strange. Who knows what’ll happen if we stay…” Zhou Feng gripped his hand and smiled. “All right.” Later, they escaped the haunted villa together. But the haunting didn’t stop. The sleep paralysis grew worse and worse. Unable to take it anymore, Chen Sanshui searched everywhere for a master who could drive out ghosts, only to discover in horror that the most terrifying ghost was right beside him. Chen Sanshui wanted to run. But when he opened the door, he found Zhou Feng standing there. The tall, handsome demon bent down with a grin and looked at him. “Baby, where are you going? Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” Both are sexually inexperienced. A twisted romance between two broken souls, an attempt to toss aside morals and decency and play around with a two-person farce. A work that indulges the author’s tastes, with the entire plot serving the romance. Theme: Persevere in the face of every setback.