Sweetly Pampered

Coming soon: The Crown Prince's Feisty Childhood Sweetheart. Blurb below. Please add it to your collection~

Though both are legitimate princesses, Zhao Ke'an is always treated as inferior to the second princess. Even their mother favors that haughty, spoiled elder sister.

The two girls are close in age, and their weddings are set for the same day, but their husbands-to-be could not be more different.

Zhao Ke'an's consort is Shen Hanzhi, heir to the Duke of Han, whom Zhao Rong once looked down on.

Shen Hanzhi is notorious in the capital as a young scoundrel, galloping through the streets and getting into trouble all day long.

Zhao Rong's husband, on the other hand, is the son of the chancellor, a man of renowned talent and looks as handsome as Pan An. He is one of the few great beauties in the capital.

Zhao Ke'an has no hopes for her marriage and keeps Shen Hanzhi at a distance, but the young duke seems unable to read the room. Every day, he comes up with new ways to please her, and at night he is insatiable. Zhao Ke'an finds him utterly exasperating.

At a palace banquet, a white dog belonging to a noble suddenly goes mad. Zhao Rong and Wen Chenye are both frightened into falling into the water, but when the dog approaches Zhao Ke'an, Shen Hanzhi kicks it to the ground. It scampers off, yelping with its tail between its legs. In that moment, Zhao Ke'an is relieved to realize that a man with nothing but brute strength isn't entirely useless.

*

Shen Hanzhi was once an ambitious young man, full of patriotic zeal and high spirits. But when he learned that his family's military power had grown so great that it had aroused the emperor's suspicion, he began hiding his true nature. When he found out he might be marrying a princess, he simply gave up and played the wastrel to the hilt.

He never expected the second princess to back out, and the emperor to send the third princess in her place. How could he possibly resist the woman he had admired when he was younger?

*

On the wedding day of the two princesses, the people of the capital gossip privately about how happy the second princess's marriage is, and how difficult the third princess's must be.

But, to everyone's surprise, the second princess and her husband are the ones who later divorce. By then, the pregnant third princess is eating grapes her consort has just peeled, and says to the consort beside her, who is holding a book of illustrations, "Keep reading. Don't stop."

* One-on-one romance, marriage first, love later, sweet story, happy ending, both leads sexually inexperienced.

* A mishmash of official systems from different dynasties. Don't take the history too seriously.

* The author's writing is limited. If you don't like it, please leave quietly, and keep your comments kind.

Coming soon: Yun Chen Steals Spring

An Shu has been beautiful and voluptuous since childhood, but because she is a concubine's daughter, her stepmother marries her off to the disabled heir of the Earl of Zhongbo as his principal wife.

With the attitude that she should make the best of things, An Shu dutifully observes the rules and serves her husband. But ever since their wedding night, he has loathed her and won't even let her near his room.

An Shu feels both hurt and confused. If he hates her so much, why does he still demand so much of her at night?

One night, feeling upset, An Shu deliberately leaves a row of bloody marks on the man's hand. But when she shares a meal with the heir the next day, she sees that his wrist is smooth and fair, without a single mark. Her heart turns cold as a frightening suspicion rises in her mind.

Another night, the man comes as expected.

An Shu's expression hardens. She takes the dagger from beneath her pillow and stabs at him, but she is no match for his strength and is pinned down instead.

In the dim gauze curtains, the man's deep eyes shine like stars in the night sky. His voice is cool as he says, "Have you only just figured it out? Isn't it a little late?"

An Shu feels utterly humiliated. At last, she understands why her husband has two different faces, one by day and another by night.

To keep the Earl of Zhongbo's household from using her any longer, An Shu spends a month making plans. At last, on a dark and stormy night, she escapes.

An Shu remembers how bright the stars were that night.

Just as she is rejoicing, thinking she is finally free, the famous young master Yun Chen stands beside a carriage with his hands behind his back. He smiles amiably and asks, "Where are you going, Miss An Shu?"

If she'd known that leaving the Earl of Zhongbo's household would only get her locked up in Qingling Courtyard, she'd rather have stayed. At least there, she wouldn't have to "work" day and night.

Revised 2023-1-3/2-27

Coming soon 2: The Princess Royal Is Trying to Get Herself Killed Every Day

The year before the dynasty is destined to fall, Sang Luo has a dream. She dreams that Marquis of Qian'an Lou Kuo will help Prince Liang take the throne, rise to become a regent with power over the entire court, and seize control of the government. And she herself will die on her wedding night with Lou Kuo.

The problem is, a month ago, her father had just arranged her marriage to Lou Kuo.

Sang Luo tosses and turns all night, then decides on the spot that she has to break off the engagement.

So she makes trouble in every way she can: today she takes a male lover, tomorrow she flirts with the top scholar, and all the while she frequents the male brothels until her reputation is in tatters.

Not long afterward, Lou Kuo returns to the capital in triumph, but doesn't say a word about breaking off the engagement.

After much thought, Sang Luo decides on a new way to make trouble. She flaunts herself in front of Lou Kuo, then tells him in the most arrogant, conceited, and petulant manner possible: You are not worthy of marrying this princess.

She never expects to overdo it. The next day, the top scholar is thrown in jail, the male brothel goes up in flames, and her male lover is exposed as a spy from an enemy state and killed on the spot.

Sang Luo touches her neck and feels that death can't be far away.

A month later, the princess and the Marquis of Qian'an marry, but disaster strikes.

A raging fire engulfs the entire princess's residence. It is said that not a bone of the legitimate princess remains.

*

Sang Luo secretly plans her own fake death. On a dark and stormy night, dressed in a phoenix crown and wedding robes caked with dirt, she finally crawls out of the escape tunnel.

But before she can even catch her breath, a pair of black boots embroidered with gold thread comes to a stop right in front of her. A man's teasing voice rings out above her: "It's dark and stormy out. Where does Your Highness think she's going?"

Sang Luo: ...I'm done for.

*

Lou Kuo doesn't kill her. Instead, he takes her back to his manor, keeping her like a caged bird in a gilded prison, with no rest night after night.

Late at night, Lou Kuo often looks at her sleeping face and asks, "Do you really not want to marry me that badly?"

But by morning, he puts on the air of a man in power and shows her exactly what it means to be "unable to escape, even with wings."

Theme: Live in the present