The Imperial Consort

An ongoing historical romance, The Seized Phoenix. Blurb at the very bottom.

Shen Wan was born with breathtaking beauty and skin as fair as jade. Because she was believed to bring good fortune, her family sent her to the palace to bring luck to the gravely ill emperor, Murong Yin.

After she entered the palace, the emperor's health improved considerably. From then on, he wanted Shen Wan by his side at all times.

Shen Wan became a favored consort, trapped in the depths of the palace.

Murong Yue was a treacherous minister who struck fear into people's hearts. He ruled the court with an iron hand and came and went as he pleased in the imperial palace, acting without restraint thanks to the emperor's trust and indulgence.

Whenever Shen Wan accompanied the emperor to meet Murong Yue, she inwardly dreaded it.

Murong Yue always looked at her without the slightest restraint.

And his eyes had appeared countless times in Shen Wan's dreams.

In those dreams, his eyes were blood-red, as if he wanted to flay her alive and grind her bones to dust.

Every time Murong Yue saw Shen Wan, he remembered the way she had died before his eyes in his previous life.

In his previous life, he had been upright and gentle, but someone had framed him and ruined Shen Wan's innocence.

On the day the imperial physician diagnosed Shen Wan as pregnant, she jumped from the Star-Catching Terrace the emperor had built for her,

shattering her body before his eyes.

After Murong Yue had dealt with everyone who had hurt Shen Wan, he opened his eyes and found himself back in the past,

before Shen Wan had entered the palace.

When the emperor died, his beautiful favored consort became a young widow.

Dressed in mourning white, Shen Wan brought her family along and knelt before Murong Yue with the young prince in her arms.

She wept, her face streaked with tears. "Regent, please save me and my son!"

Murong Yue raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

Shen Wan pointed to the young prince in her arms. "Actually, he's your son."

Murong Yue: "I know."

Shen Wan: "Quick, call him Father!"

The officials of the entire court knew that Murong Yue and Shen Wan were at odds.

Whenever they met in the palace, it was a case of two enemies crossing paths.

After the emperor died, Shen Wan was sure to be sent to join him in the afterlife by Murong Yue.

But even after Murong Yue usurped the throne and seized the realm,

Shen Wan remained alive and well.

She even became Murong Yue's empress,

and the young prince she had borne, whose future had once looked bleak, was named crown prince.

The court officials and all the people of the realm: !

The Seized Phoenix, a historical romance

A'Juan, a maid with an alluring, captivating beauty, was separated from her family by war. To escape the beggars and bandits, she could only beg for help from Xie Heng, heir to the Duke of Chu, who happened to be passing by.

Xie Heng was gravely wounded, so he took her in as a maid to care for him.

After Xie Heng recovered, he made A'Juan his bedchamber attendant.

After a night of intoxicating passion, the young woman, with skin whiter than snow and a gentle beauty, was like a piece of jade fallen into the mud. A'Juan quietly shed tears.

The next day, while the flush had yet to fade from A'Juan's face, Xie Heng, dressed impeccably, gently lifted her chin.

"You're nothing but a plaything I use to appease my father and the others. Remember your place, and don't entertain thoughts you shouldn't have."

From then on, A'Juan became the target of everyone in the Duke of Chu's household. They all said the usually aloof and noble heir had been bewitched by her, a little fox spirit.

Only A'Juan knew that even when they were together day and night, Xie Heng had never felt the slightest affection for her.

When news arrived that the emperor was returning to the capital, A'Juan finally left without a word, escaping the Duke of Chu's estate. The identity of A'Juan the maid vanished with her.

Only Xie Heng stood there, eyes red, gazing at the hungry baby in his swaddling clothes.

*

Princess Jiang Baoluan, the eldest princess who was granted the title of Protector of the State, had been doted on since childhood. With her radiant, beautiful looks, she was the most precious jewel of Great Wei.

But Jiang Baoluan had a hidden past, and because of it, the people around her cherished her even more.

One day, Jiang Baoluan went out in a splendid carriage with a fine team of horses and a tightly guarded escort, drawing crowds of onlookers.

The gauze curtain shifted, revealing part of the princess's lovely face, radiant and noble beyond compare.

But Jiang Baoluan suddenly panicked.

Among the crowd watching her, a pair of hawk-like eyes stared at her from the shadows. Memories long buried came rushing back, and all Jiang Baoluan wanted was to escape.

Xie Heng watched darkly as the carriage of the Princess of Protector of the State departed. The three-year-old child holding his hand looked up at him and asked, "Father, is that Mother?"

*

On the day the kingdom fell and her family was destroyed, Xie Heng broke into the bedchamber of the Princess of Protector of the State.

His handsome face was grim. With the bloodied tip of his knife, he lifted the chin of the princess, who was cowering nearby.

"A'Juan, I believe I told you what would happen if you dared to run."

Jiang Baoluan became Xie Heng's imprisoned concubine once more.

Everyone thought the fallen princess, who had killed her husband and son, would not survive long in Xie Heng's hands.

Even Jiang Baoluan herself waited for the day Xie Heng would kill her.

Instead, she received an imperial edict granting her a marriage.

Years later, when the fallen princess had become the empress of the new dynasty, Jiang Baoluan heard Xie Heng tell her, "You can never run away again."

Jiang Baoluan: "Congratulations. Neither can you."

Theme: A strong will can overcome all kinds of hardship.