The Phoenix's Fate

[Main story complete] Please check out my upcoming novels and add them to your favorites:

"The Amnesiac Wife Mistakes Her Husband" and "A Branch of Red Apricot Blossoms"

Blurb:

Born to be empress, a pampered noblewoman VS an emperor who schemes his way to power for love

Before Ning Mingyu was even born, a high monk foretold that she was destined to be empress.

She entered the world with a crimson phoenix-shaped birthmark between her brows, and everyone was certain she would be the next empress.

But no one knew that, in the depths of night, she dreamed again and again of being imprisoned in Kunning Palace, trapped like a caged bird with no way out, all because of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau's prophecy: "If the empress remains, the nation will fall."

Mingyu did not want her nightmare to come true. She did not want to marry the violent, hot-tempered eldest prince, nor the second prince, who was in league with powerful in-laws.

So she noticed the third prince, Zhao Jingyun, who never fought for attention.

He was a gentle gentleman, as otherworldly as an immortal. Surely he would never hurt her as he did in her dreams.

Zhao Jingyun was born to a dancing girl and had never planned to fight for the throne.

But the woman he loved was the designated future empress, and the man she was to marry would be the future emperor.

He had always thought that someone of such humble birth as himself could never be worthy of a noblewoman like her.

It was only when the struggle for the crown prince's position grew fiercer that he learned of the nightmares that kept Mingyu awake night after night.

Zhao Jingyun decided he would fight for the throne, too.

Even if it was only so she could enjoy one peaceful night of dreamless sleep.

Years later, after chatting a little too long with an envoy at a palace banquet,

Mingyu woke the next morning on the phoenix bed in Kunning Palace.

She gazed at the clothes scattered around the palace and the red silk tied around her hands, lost in thought...

The emperor behind her turned and pulled his empress close by her slender waist, his eyes full of possessiveness and satisfaction. "I wish I could hide you away, Yu'er, so no one else could covet you."

Reading notes: Sweet romance / fictional setting / each other's first love / personal growth

Upcoming novels

1. "A Branch of Red Apricot Blossoms": A gentle yet strong, clear-eyed heroine VS a fierce, possessive man who fights to claim her

In the three years Shen Zhi was married to Gu Huaiwen, she helped him climb the ladder of success and managed his household, becoming renowned throughout the capital as the perfect virtuous wife.

But in the end, she could not escape the blame for failing to bear a child in three years.

So she watched helplessly as Gu Huaiwen brought his childhood sweetheart, his cousin, into the household in a small sedan chair. Eight months later, the woman gave birth to a son.

As Shen Zhi listened to the baby's cries from the birthing room, she thought:

On this happy occasion, there was no need to tell Gu Huaiwen just yet that the doctor had diagnosed him as infertile.

Huo Ye had once been a lowly horse groom in the Shen household. By a twist of fate, he was freed from servitude, joined the army, and distinguished himself. But after returning to the capital in glory, he discovered that the young lady he had admired had been betrayed by her ungrateful husband.

He wanted to tear the faithless man limb from limb, but then he realized this was a gift from heaven, a perfect opportunity.

So he immediately bought an old house next door to the Gu residence, planted the apricot tree the young lady liked best, practiced his boxing shirtless beneath the wall every night, and contrived to bump into her at every turn...

When spring came and the blossoms opened, he would give her the most beautiful apricot blossom.

Gu Huaiwen barged into the Huo residence with a divorce agreement, accusing Huo Ye of shamelessly seducing his wife.

Huo Ye calmly snatched the agreement from him, folded it into Shen Zhi's favorite flower, and admitted,

"I did seduce her, but I used a sincerity Lord Gu has never shown."

Reading notes:

Sweet and satisfying romance / The male lead is a scheming, competitive green tea who fights to claim her / The clear-eyed heroine transforms and learns to love herself most

2. "The Amnesiac Wife Mistakes Her Husband": After losing her memory, she mistakes her late husband's younger brother for her husband

To pay for her mother's medical treatment, Shen Shu married into the wealthy Pei family to bring good fortune to the dying eldest son.

A year later, the eldest son of the Pei family died. Shen Shu resigned from the household and set out to leave, but met with an accident along the way.

When Shen Shu woke, she remembered nothing. All she had was a heartfelt farewell letter and a portrait of a man.

Following the only clues she had, she returned to the Pei family.

Shen Shu looked at the kind and amiable Madam Pei, felt an immediate fondness for her, and called her "Mother-in-law."

Madam Pei happily accepted the title.

Shen Shu breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had come to the right place.

Then she turned to the second son of the Pei family, who had just returned from the battlefield covered in wounds. Seeing his resemblance to the man in the portrait, she sweetly called him "Husband."

The second son blushed deeply. In the end, he changed "sister-in-law" to "wife."

Reading notes:

1. Younger man, both are each other's first, and the heroine is two years older.

2. The eldest brother is still alive at the beginning.

3. Sweet romance. The male lead falls for her first.

Theme: My fate is mine to shape, not Heaven's.