Jin of the Eastern Palace

The follow-up novel, Bound by Longing, is currently serializing. Feel free to add it to your library~ Merchant's daughter Ning Songwan has been having a lucky streak lately: Her childhood sweetheart placed third in the imperial examinations, but gave up the better prospects awaiting him to stay in Wangjing as a local magistrate, carving out a little place for her beneath the sky; Her mother was cast aside by her scumbag father, but reunited with her first love and became a Duchess. The Duke treats her as his own daughter, and she now has a stepsister-brother, the heir to the title, whom countless noble ladies in the capital adore. This untouchable beauty has turned into a doting brother who can't stop spoiling his little sister; She took in a young beggar who, once cleaned up, turned out to be a handsome, peerless young gentleman. He obeyed her every word and was utterly devoted to her. But the real shock was that the beggar came from a noble family: he was actually a Crown Prince! But soon, all that good fortune crumbled and turned into bad luck: Her childhood sweetheart, the county magistrate, was stolen away from her; The untouchable beauty was actually a black-hearted schemer. His doting brother act was just a way to fend off unwanted admirers, but it drew countless people’s attention onto her instead; The Crown Prince she took in wasn't the current dynasty's heir, but one from the previous dynasty. He failed to earn merit saving the Emperor and was instead accused of harboring remnants of the old dynasty... Novel blurb: The Crown Prince is of age and ready to marry. The Empress keeps summoning the wife of the Marquis of Anyi, leaving the noble ladies heartbroken: “Could Xia Shijin be about to become the Crown Princess?” Xia Shijin, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Anyi's household, quickly dispels the rumor: “How could that be? I've never even met the Crown Prince!” Just then, the Crown Prince arrives. Radiant and serene, his beauty unmatched, Duan Zhen walks straight up to Xia Shijin as everyone pays their respects and holds out a piece of jade he had kept close to his person. “You left in such a hurry that day, you forgot this.” The noble ladies sneer: What a liar! What a scheming little minx! Xia Shijin's heart trembles. It is true that she has met Duan Zhen, but she really can't tell anyone... because when she saw him, he was killing someone. The Crown Prince may seem gentle as a spring breeze, but in truth he is bloodthirsty and brutal. Who would dare tell anyone something like that? [Little Scene] The day she accidentally witnessed Duan Zhen killing someone, Xia Shijin was disguised as a palace maid. Afterward, she was immensely relieved that Duan Zhen hadn't known who she was before. If she stayed out of his way from then on, he would never find out. But before long, a portrait of her surfaced in the Eastern Palace. Huh????! Were they putting out a warrant for her? At least they had drawn her exceptionally beautiful... Later, Xia Shijin enters the Eastern Palace and opens a forbidden pavilion, only to find the entire hall filled with portraits of her, from different stages of her life, from childhood to adulthood. A chill crawls up her back. So the nightmare of a first encounter she remembered wasn't really their first meeting at all. This nightmare had begun long before, when she was still too young to understand... Theme: For all that my heart holds dear, I would never regret it, even if I had to die nine times.