Marriage Fraud

Angels just passing by, please add my next historical romance to your reading list.

The Zhou family is renowned throughout the county for its good deeds. Their eldest son has been bedridden with a chronic illness for years, but lately a rumor has suddenly spread that they are looking for a woman with the fate of a “coffin-born child” to marry him and bring him good luck.

That day, Jiang Huan was fortune-telling with her master outside a coffin shop. They waited all day for someone to take the bait, and at last, just before dark, they caught a fat rabbit.

A man stood before their stall, his face hidden beneath a gray-blue cloak. In the dim light, his features were impossible to make out. He did not ask for a fortune reading. He simply tossed over a gold ingot.

Jiang Huan waved him off, firm in her principles. “I won’t do anything that takes someone’s life!”

The man chuckled softly. “The eldest son of the Zhou family is at death’s door. Marry into the family to bring him good luck, and once he breathes his last, half of their enormous fortune will be yours.”

“So, if I marry into the Zhou family, I just have to wait for my coffin to bring me a fortune and for my husband to die?” Jiang Huan raised a bright, cheerful smile, though she could not see the other man’s expression.

At the time, Jiang Huan had no idea that the Zhou family, each member harboring their own schemes, was waiting for her to be “tricked” into marrying in.

The Zhou family mansion was spacious and brightly lit, but deeper inside it hid darker secrets that few knew about. It was said that the eldest son had a twin sister whom he doted on, but she had unfortunately died in a wolf’s jaws years ago.

“Eldest Master, is what they say true?” Jiang Huan blinked up at him from her pillow, looking utterly innocent.

“Your sister?” The man’s fingertip brushed her cheek. His voice was hoarse, his words hushed. In the stillest depths of night, he sighed in her ear, “My sister!”

The eldest son of the Zhou family really did have a twin sister, but he did not.

If everyone in the Zhou family were ghosts, then he would be the most evil one beneath the Ten Courts of Hell. He deserved to die young, but before he descended into the underworld, he still wanted to kiss her once more.

Both leads are men.

Another novel on my page, Blue-and-White Blossoms Ablaze, is currently updating.

After Yanbei was defeated and the Feng family defected to the enemy, notices calling for the capture of the remaining rebels were posted throughout the streets and alleys of Yan Kingdom overnight.

The Seventh Prince, Zhou Zhaoyan, was sent by imperial order to Yanbei to clear the battlefield. Young but already notorious for killing, he was someone neither spirits nor gods would approach.

Feng Qingran, who had only just escaped with her life, knew nothing of this. She ran straight into his hands.

*

In the dead of night, when all was quiet, Feng Qingran knelt by the bed. The man’s sleeping robe was a cold gray, seemingly as unfeeling as he was, yet his voice by her ear was hoarse and burning.

“I’ll see only one person tonight. Should she stay, or should you?”

Just beyond the curtain, a maid waited to be summoned to his bed.

*

Everyone who knew him said that Seventh Master had no understanding of love or desire, and could never become involved with the daughter of a condemned official.

Zhou Zhaoyan only smiled at that. Involved with her? He wished he could be entangled with her for the rest of his life.

The story’s guiding idea: Even a tiny moss flower can learn to bloom like a peony.