When Will the Tyrant Try to Silence Me?

(Updates daily. On March 1, the story will go premium, with three chapters that day. Thank you for your support!) The blurb for my upcoming novel, A Pair of Lovebirds, is at the bottom. A Jin is a palace maid serving the emperor. She has served him for two years. In the twenty-third year of Tianhe, the emperor falls gravely ill. The Prince of Yu raises an army in rebellion, and Prince Cheng, Lu Qinghuai, marches into the palace in the name of purging the court of corrupt officials. Everyone thinks the Prince of Yu killed the emperor with the Imperial Sword. Only A Jin knows that the emperor was killed by Lu Qinghuai. When Lu Qinghuai stormed into Shangyang Hall, A Jin was beside the imperial bed. The young man wore armor splattered with blood, his eyes vicious and full of murderous intent. That day, she watched Lu Qinghuai drive his sword into the emperor's chest. Blood flowed from the imperial bed and spread across the floor. Terrified, she knelt trembling in the pool of blood and begged Lu Qinghuai to spare her life. Holding the still-dripping sword, Lu Qinghuai crouched in front of her, lifted her chin, and gave her an amused smile. "Very well. How about we make a bet?" "I'll let you keep serving at my side as before. But if I hear about this from anyone else, then it all ends." Of course, "this" meant the regicide. "All right," A Jin replied, trembling. Everyone in the palace knows the new emperor has a volatile temper and is ruthless, yet he treats one of the maids serving at his side differently from everyone else. Sometimes the new emperor stays overnight in the side hall, holding her in his arms as he idly toys with a lock of her long hair and softly calls her name. "A Jin." He shares meals with her, but makes her serve him the dishes. Whatever she serves, he eats, docile and utterly unlike his usual self. He even had a consort who bullied her cut in half at the waist, without so much as blinking. Everyone throughout the imperial city envies A Jin for the emperor's favor. Only A Jin knows she's nothing but a caged songbird Lu Qinghuai keeps around for his amusement. Because of their bet, she knows that he's never trying to please her. He only wants to use her to please himself. No one knows that in the twenty-first year of Tianhe, on a snowy night not long after he returned to the palace from the border, a young maid serving at his side accidentally bumped into him in the corridor while clearing away tea. The teacup shattered, and her hand was injured, but she didn't make a sound from beginning to end. Having just returned from the battlefield, he felt a pang of sympathy for her. 1. One-on-one romance, both leads are sexually inexperienced. 2. The tyrant is truly cruel, but not to the female lead. Don't read if that's not your thing. A Pair of Lovebirds Shen Baoling, the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Justice, is given in marriage by imperial decree to Jiang Yuduo, an instructor at the Imperial Academy. It is said that the instructor at the Imperial Academy is handsome, gentle and refined, like a pine or bamboo. At a banquet, Shen Baoling once glimpsed Jiang Yuduo through the rain. The young man wore an official robe in the blue-green shade of a grand tutor, standing among a group of officials and shining without restraint. His good looks made him stand out even more. Shen Baoling was lost in thought when she looked up and met Jiang Yuduo's eyes. Jiang Yuduo didn't look away. Instead, he greeted Shen Baoling openly and gracefully. On their wedding day, Jiang Yuduo carefully lifted Shen Baoling's veil with the ceremonial scale. He had been drinking, and his face was a little flushed. "My lord," Shen Baoling called to Jiang Yuduo, somewhat bashfully. Shen Baoling had thought Jiang Yuduo was a distant sort of person. Only after they began living together did she discover that he was clingy. "My lady, classes ended early today, so I brought you a few candied hawthorns." "My lady, the peach blossoms in the countryside are blooming. Would you like to go see them?" "My lady..." In heaven, may we be birds flying side by side; on earth, may we be branches entwined. Theme: A happy life is something you have to strive for yourself.