A Prisoner's Loss and Gain

Jiang Bao Ci was once the top courtesan at the Imperial Music Bureau. Thanks to her beautiful voice, she was chosen by Consort Li, freed from her registered status as a performer, and brought into the palace as a senior maid at Changchun Palace. She thought her hardships were finally over, but Consort Li suddenly fell from favor and was deposed and placed under house arrest.

With her powerful patron gone, the Imperial Music Bureau's director did everything possible to seize her, a valuable source of income, and take her back. To save her own life, Jiang Bao Ci let slip that she was Lu Yanhe's bedmate. To make the lie convincing, she had no choice but to go to the Eastern Depot director's residence at Xingyuan every day. But no matter how much she pleaded and coaxed, Director Lu refused to help. Only later did she learn that Lu Yanhe and Consort Li had a deep-seated grudge.

Everyone says Lu Yanhe is sinister, terrifying, treacherous, and cold-hearted. He holds a spool of golden thread in his hand, with the other end tied to the secrets of every civil and military official. The scholars despise and fear him. But in Jiang Bao Ci's eyes, Lu Yanhe is handsome, all sharp words and soft feelings, frail, lonely, and unloved. He's simply pitiful.

Lu Yanhe thinks the little palace maid keeps flirting with him just to amuse herself. What girl would like a eunuch? He won't fall for it. But when he sees Consort Li's nephew confess his feelings to her, jealousy burns through him. He stops her on the way back, heedless of everything, and says, "For three years, be my bedmate, and I'll help the Li family seize power."

PS: The male lead is a real eunuch.

Coming soon: "A Wealth of Pearls and Splendor"

Su Hongyu comes from a family of artisans. Her ancestors have all made jewelry, and their craftsmanship is extraordinary.

She runs a jewelry shop in the capital that is thriving and raking in money every day. By comparison, the calligraphy stall across the street, run by a scholar, is rather shabby. He sits there from morning until night and earns barely a hundred coins, not enough to cover his meals after paying for his studies.

But the scholar is handsome and composed. When he writes, a glimpse of his exquisitely shaped wrist appears beneath his sleeve. His fingers are long and finely boned, and each stroke seems written on her heart. On a freezing day, Su Hongyu walks over and teases him, "Young Master, marry into my family. I'll make jewelry to support you." The scholar gives her a cold look and walks away, furious and humiliated.

Xue Hechen's father died young, leaving him and his mother to rely on each other, along with his younger brother and sister. He took on the burden of supporting the family early. Their life was hard but peaceful. Talented from a young age, he passed the county-level imperial examination as a teenager. All he had to do was pass the spring examination the following year and become a successful candidate, and his family's circumstances would change dramatically.

When Su Hongyu flirts with him again and again, Xue Hechen feels insulted and never gives her a kind word. Yet when he sees her turn around and strike up a conversation with another young gentleman, he can't stop feeling irritated. He thinks he'll settle things with her after he passes the spring examination. But fate has other plans. In the twelfth month, his mother falls gravely ill. With nowhere else to turn, Xue Hechen knocks on the Su family's door on a snowy night.

"Please, Miss, save my mother's life."

He kneels at Su Hongyu's feet, breaking his pride and casting aside all dignity.

"I'll marry into your family, be your lover, or sell myself as your slave. Anything you want."

Su Hongyu casually slips a pair of gold bracelets from her wrists and presses them into his hands. "Everyone has a time when they fall on hard times. Young Master Xue, you don't need to do this."

Xue Hechen is stunned. "..."

What does she mean, he doesn't need to do this?

Later, Xue Hechen passes the imperial examination and rises rapidly through the ranks. With the gold bracelets he has bought back, he blocks Su Hongyu in an alley when she returns from discussing a marriage proposal. His expression darkens. "What is it about me that doesn't suit you, Miss Yu? You'd rather choose someone else than me?"

"I'm looking for a man to marry into my family. Official Xue isn't suitable."

"Give me a chance, Miss Yu. I'm suitable."

Theme: True love is priceless