After Toying with and Abandoning the Enemy Kingdom's Crown Prince

While Li Wangshu was a hostage in the State of Chen, someone set her up to become intimate with its Crown Prince, Chen Wang. Chen Wang was arrogant, sharp-tongued, and ill-tempered, but at least he was easy on the eyes.

Li Wangshu decided to turn the situation to her advantage, using a secret relationship to win Chen Wang's protection behind the scenes.

At first, Chen Wang simply thought that since Li Wangshu was his, he was the only one allowed to bully her.

After a while, he grew thoroughly attached to her. Seeing how much she loved him, Chen Wang magnanimously said, "Since you like me so much, I'll report to my father and do you the favor of taking you as a secondary consort."

In Chen Wang's imagination, Li Wangshu would be moved to tears.

But in reality, Li Wangshu fled that very night, leaving him only a letter.

Back in the State of Li, Li Wangshu let herself go and began looking for consorts.

She had three requirements: First, he had to be good at taking care of people, gentle and sweet-tempered. Second, he had to be handsome. If he was handsome enough, she could be flexible about the first requirement. Third, anyone surnamed Chen or with the character Wang in his name, including homophones, was out of the question, even if he met the first two requirements!

When men of ambition across the various states heard about this, they flocked to the State of Li to apply. When the news reached the State of Chen, Chen Wang crushed his scalding teacup in one hand. Li Wangshu had been deceiving him from the very beginning!

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My upcoming story of the same type, "Would-Be Husbands," is now open for preorders. Here's the synopsis:

Shi Baolang, granddaughter of Yuzhou's richest man, was so obsessed with making money that she had no interest in marriage. When Shi Baolang was still unmarried while all the girls her age were already mothers, Old Master Shi grew anxious.

He gave Shi Baolang two choices: either he would pick a husband for her, or she could choose a live-in husband herself.

Shi Baolang chose the latter.

The Crown Prince, Han Xuanzhen, was peerlessly handsome, but arrogant, sharp-tongued, and bad-tempered.

While secretly traveling south to investigate a case, Han Xuanzhen entered the Shi household under the alias Qian Xi to look into things, becoming one of Shi Baolang's prospective live-in husbands. From then on, he led a miserable life: competing with the other candidates for Shi Baolang's favor by day, and investigating the case by night.

Hard work paid off. After Han Xuanzhen had patiently bided his time, he finally obtained the evidence.

Han Xuanzhen promptly faked his death and escaped, wiping away this humiliating chapter of his life and reclaiming his place as the illustrious Crown Prince.

Back in the capital, the Empress began arranging a selection of Crown Princess candidates for Han Xuanzhen. But as he considered them one by one, he realized none of them appealed to him as much as Shi Baolang. He suddenly remembered that before faking his death and escaping, Shi Baolang had already decided to take him as her live-in husband.

After much hesitation, Han Xuanzhen decided to return to Yuzhou.

The prospective husband she'd chosen suddenly died. Shi Baolang was miserable for several days, then began looking for a new live-in husband.

Just as she was happily preparing to marry him, the man she'd chosen before suddenly came back from the dead.

His face dark with anger, he cornered her in her room. "Did you really think I was dead?"

Theme: Leave some room for others, so you can meet again another day.