Coveting the Golden Bough

[New Novel: The Lark Who Embraced Beauty] is complete from start to finish. Enjoy!

Coming soon: [My Family Has a Younger Sister] and [Spring in the Brocade Tent]. Please add them to your favorites. Blurbs are at the bottom!

Blurb:

[Fake Siblings + Taking by Force]

In her previous life, Lu Jianian was a treasured princess of noble birth, carefree as she reached marriageable age.

Then a coup turned everything upside down. Her most unremarkable younger brother, Lu Jingyou, murdered their father and brothers, and climbed the throne over a mountain of corpses.

Imprisoned in the palace, she trembled as Lu Jingyou lowered his sword and reached up to cradle her face. His smile was chilling as he said:

"Elder Sister, you are so beautiful. I can spare your life. From now on, you will share my bed and attend to me every night."

When Lu Jianian opened her eyes again, she had returned to the age of sixteen.

She was still a princess, pampered and revered, while Lu Jingyou was merely a forgotten castoff, hardly daring to dream of seeing her.

She had planned to eliminate him once and for all, but when she entered the cold palace, she saw her royal brothers tormenting him for amusement. Even the servants used him as an outlet for their cruelty.

The young man's wounds were grotesque, blood staining his tattered clothes. His face was as pale as paper, and he stared at her with fear and suspicion.

So the tyrannical, ruthless emperor from her previous life had once been so wretched and helpless.

Lu Jianian's heart softened. In the end, she took him back with her, thinking that people were good by nature, and that if she taught him to behave honorably, she could prevent disaster.

*

The late emperor had taken the wife of a disgraced minister by force and brought her into his harem. Lu Jingyou was the son she bore in secret after his death.

After something happened to his mother, he endured humiliation and torment, gritting his teeth and surviving in the cold palace.

He hated the princes and princesses who looked down on everyone, but Lu Jianian was the one exception.

She treated him with tenderness and care, extending a gentle, warm hand to him in the abyss.

For her sake, Lu Jingyou held himself back and hid his sharp edges. He thought that if he became the obedient, open-hearted boy she cherished, he could keep his elder sister by his side forever.

Until one day, he saw Lu Jianian choose her prince consort and smile as she handed him the wedding invitation.

On the day of the wedding, flames engulfed the princess's residence. The prince consort was left dead in a pool of blood, and the princess vanished without a trace.

In a shadowy side hall, Lu Jingyou tenderly kissed away the tears at the corners of Lu Jianian's eyes. His smile was wild and possessive, his voice hoarse as he said:

"Elder Sister, you will never escape me in this life. I will be your only husband. It can only be me."

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. Happy ending. Half a year age difference.

2. There were other reasons behind the leads' previous lives.

3. The prince consort is no good, and gets what he deserves.

Blurb for [My Family Has a Younger Sister]:

[Blended Family, Childhood Sweethearts, Growing-Up Romance]

Su Zhi was born into poverty. Her father died when she was young, and she lived with her mother and a tea merchant.

The tea merchant treated them terribly, often resorting to fists and kicks. Only his son, Xie Wangchen, protected her.

Later, the tea merchant fell gravely ill, and her mother abandoned her, fleeing alone with all the valuables she could carry.

Still very young, Su Zhi had no choice but to depend on Xie Wangchen. She timidly tugged at the boy's clothes, her almond-shaped eyes brimming with tears as she called him "Big Brother."

Everyone said Su Zhi had a hard life, but she never once complained.

That was because her brother doted on her. He earned money to buy her peanut candy, held her gently as he took her to see the opera, and brought every beautiful thing in the world to her.

As time went by, she came to take it all for granted, accepting it with innocent ease.

Only when she sneaked out to play and spent the night at a married couple's home did she realize something was wrong

The husband arranged his wife's hair and applied her makeup, embracing her tenderly in front of a bronze mirror;

The husband helped his wife bathe and change, gently wiping the droplets from her hair;

The husband and wife went to bed together, murmuring and turning in each other's arms behind the curtains.

On the way back after she was caught, she stared at her brother's hand, clenched so tightly it had left red marks, and fell into deep thought.

The more Su Zhi thought about it, the more frightened she became. But when she looked at her gentle, devoted brother, she didn't dare say a word.

At last, she found an opportunity and fled in a panic.

*

Xie Wangchen was cold-blooded by nature and ruthless in his methods. After his mother died, he grew to despise the entire world.

Then, beneath the warm light of spring, an innocent young woman appeared before him, following him and calling, "Big Brother," again and again.

Her voice was sweet and lovely, lilting and melodious, like a fledgling that inspired tenderness.

Xie Wangchen felt warmth in his heart. He gave her the only kindness and tenderness he had, and carefully raised her to adulthood.

He never imagined that the younger sister he had raised with his own hands would run away without a shred of gratitude.

In an instant, Xie Wangchen's expression darkened. His gaze turned wild and resolute, and every trace of his gentle disguise vanished.

When they met again, Su Zhi had become a young lady of the capital. She held the arm of a young man in white, smiling freely and happily, as though she had long since forgotten him.

Xie Wangchen showed no sign of emotion. He politely treated the young man as his sister's friend, exchanged pleasantries with him, and personally thanked him for looking after his sister.

But late that night, he took the fingers that had held another man's hand and wiped them clean one by one.

Then he shed every trace of restraint and refinement, guided her hand to his sash, and slowly stroked and explored it inch by inch.

"A Zhi, I raised you. There are many things you don't need anyone else for."

"Your brother will teach you himself."

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. Happy ending.

2. The male lead is a sweet-on-the-surface, dark-inside, unstable yandere with a strong desire to control.

3. Six-year age difference.

4. The leads are not related by blood. Their romance begins after their family relationship ends.

Blurb for [Spring in the Brocade Tent]:

[The Heroine Gets Her Revenge, Taking by Force, Rivalry Among Men]

Su Wanqing was gravely wounded and left to wander the streets. By chance, Shen Wentan rescued her.

The physician said the shock had made her forget much of her past.

Her benefactor, Shen Wentan, was the man behind Tianxiang Pavilion and a trusted confidant of the emperor. Grateful to him, Su Wanqing willingly put herself at his disposal.

Though it was a place of pleasure, it was somewhere she could at least stay. She had no other improper hopes.

Everyone said Shen Wentan was gloomy and cruel, a man of deep schemes, yet he treated Su Wanqing exceptionally well.

He tolerated her timidity and shyness, smiled only for her, and would even personally instruct her when the mood struck him.

Su Wanqing blushed and her heart raced. Experiencing love for the first time, she treasured this rare warmth.

She thought that once the situation had settled, Shen Wentan would marry her, and everything would be aboveboard.

Until one day, Shen Wentan handed her over to the great general Li Zhou without a hint of reluctance.

Su Wanqing's heart died completely. She raised her tear-filled almond eyes, then suddenly found the man before her strangely familiar.

She vaguely remembered that she and Li Zhou had once pledged themselves to each other in secret, and that she had leaned against his shoulder and sweetly called him "husband."

But on their wedding night, he never came. Instead, she received news of his death on the road home, along with an imperial decree confiscating her family estate and exiling her family.

*

Shen Wentan was born to a songstress and despised by his family from childhood. Hidden behind Tianxiang Pavilion, he controlled the currents of power and became the emperor's sharpest blade.

He had met Su Wanqing only once.

The lively, lovely young woman had smiled at him, and from then on, she stayed in his mind, impossible to forget.

When he first brought her back, he considered her an ordinary plaything and refused to let her disturb his heart or hinder his ambitions.

So when Li Zhou proposed a deal, Shen Wentan pushed her away without hesitation.

Only when Su Wanqing ignored him beneath the warm spring sun, then smiled brightly as she took Li Zhou's arm, did Shen Wentan begin to regret it. And when they later made love in the brocade tent, his regret became unbearable.

The sight of their mutual devotion stung his eyes. Shen Wentan's smile turned cold and sinister, while a shard of broken porcelain in his palm cut through his flesh, blood dripping from his fingertips onto the ground.

So what if he had taken a wrong turn? He could simply take her back.

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced.

2. Includes the hero's regret and pursuit of the heroine, taking by force, and a rivalry among men.

3. The male lead is a yandere, the second male lead is a scheming general, and they fiercely compete for her.

Theme: Let sincerity part the clouds, and bravely move forward.