The Madam Gets Winded Just Walking

[Please add my new book, The Lady Cousin Doesn't Want to Be a Concubine, to your collection] Shen Yiren has a little secret she can't tell anyone. She can't take too long a stride when she walks. If she hurries, she gets short of breath, and then she can hear other people's thoughts. The noblewomen of the capital all smile to her face while sneering at her in their hearts. --Why does this green tea girl keep hanging around the Duke of Zhenguo's residence? Look at her, walking around like a weeping willow in the wind. How sickeningly affected. Her cousin, the heir to the Duke of Zhenguo, is always suspecting her of having designs on him. --Why is my cousin always blushing? Could she be in love with me? Hmph, but I don't like weak, weepy women like her. Shen Yiren puts up with it all, since she's living under someone else's roof, helpless and alone. By chance, her cousin discovers Shen Yiren's mind-reading secret. Shen Yiren weeps so pitifully that she looks like a pear blossom in the rain, afraid he'll think she's a demoness and kill her. But her cousin's thoughts are, --Wonderful! Now I can have my cousin interrogate the prisoners for me! We can solve the missing tax silver case! The heir at first: Sorry to trouble you, Cousin. Come help me hear the thoughts of these hardened criminals. The heir later: I'm not letting those stinking men lay eyes on my wife. I'll interrogate them myself! [Warnings] 1. The male lead is very stupid early on. He thinks he's an expert at spotting fake women, but actually gets led around by the nose. 2. Once the male lead realizes how he feels, he spends the rest of his life acting like a lovesick puppy. 3. The female lead takes a long time to fall in love, so you'll often see the male lead performing a one-man show. ---------------Preorder Divider----------------- The Scheming Maid's Rise A slave: a lower-class person who is oppressed, exploited, and put to work without personal freedom. Yingxue is not only a slave, but a slave among slaves: a hereditary servant. She was born to be an appendage of her masters. If she is beautiful, she must have her fangs clipped and become a concubine to seduce and win over her master's new son-in-law. If she is clever, she must hide her looks and become her master's maid, never leaving her side, day or night. If she is graceful, she must hide from view, concealing her talents and keeping silent, lest the masters and young gentlemen of the household force themselves on her. And Yingxue is beautiful, clever, and graceful. Her young mistress sees her as a thorn in her side, ordering her to tempt the philandering future son-in-law both openly and in secret, while also fearing that Yingxue is ambitious and waiting for a chance to rise above her station. Yingxue says nothing. In front of her mistress, she weeps and pleads her case, insisting she would never dare betray her. But in front of the future son-in-law, her voice turns soft. Weeping like a pear blossom in the rain, she coaxes him, word by word, to come to her room. Only after Yingxue rises from maid to concubine, then becomes his equal wife, and finally receives the title of Commandery Lady does she leisurely tell her young mistress: --Yingxue simply doesn't want to be a slave anymore. Theme: Finding love in a simple, peaceful life.