Synopsis
[Upcoming novel: After Secretly Fleeing on the Anniversary of My Husband's Death. Visit the author's page and add it to your reading list.]
[Synopsis]
Everyone thinks the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yongan's household is a pawn anyone can manipulate.
Her betrothal is switched, her family treats her coldly, and she is made a sacrificial offering to ward off disaster.
But no one knows that within this frail body lives a true little Dragon Princess who clawed her way back from an abyss of corpses.
She guides the seven worldly obsessions of infatuation, resentment, greed, envy, and the rest, solves one strange case after another, and always avenges a wrong, never showing mercy.
Until she meets the cold and austere beauty from the Bureau of Astronomy, a man as untouchable as a mountain peak.
Pei Mingzhu's background is a mystery. Bound by a seal, he is indifferent and aloof, untouched by worldly concerns. Yet he falls for her alone, the woman who has returned reborn, and breaks his vows for her.
*
A fantastical tale of one who guides the world's obsessions to their end, gentle yet edged with thorns.
A Li: “I only wanted to gather enough wish power to return to the dragon clan. How did I end up bringing Lord Pei back with me too??”
Pei Mingzhu: “...”
[Little Dragon Princess × Untouchable beauty of the mystic arts]
[Standalone wrongful-death cases | Ancient fantasy | One-on-one romance | Happy ending]
Updates every night at 9:00.
Upcoming novel: After Secretly Fleeing on the Anniversary of My Husband's Death
Wen Yu once fell deeply in love with someone when she was young, and they privately pledged themselves to each other.
But her elder brother was caught in a deadly predicament, and the only way to save him was for her to marry into the Duke of Rong's household. To save her only close relative, she personally severed her romance and became the wife of Lu Chongzhou, the Duke's Fourth Son.
After only two years together, her husband passed away. During her year of widowhood, her mother-in-law criticized and tormented her while the servants fawned on those with power. She endured and yielded at every turn, only to face increasingly cruel humiliation and abuse.
Wen Yu suddenly came to her senses. Her reputation was already in tatters, so why remain trapped in the shackles of propriety and sacrifice the rest of her life?
She resolved to break out of her cage, quietly plan an escape, and flee the Duke's household.
-
As a child, Lu Xianzhou had been adrift, with no one to rely on. Wen Yu gave him several years of peace and warmth.
Relying on his own ruthless tenacity, he fought his way across the battlefield, waiting only to return victorious and give her a life of splendor.
But what awaited him was a letter from the woman, ending their love and severing all ties.
The once-lowborn, wandering boy was acknowledged by his birth family overnight and became the heir to the Duke of Rong, as well as a powerful courtier close to the emperor.
Lu Xianzhou is innately proud and cruel, and has never cared for worldly etiquette or clan propriety.
Even if she once left him because he was poor, even if she is his younger brother's wife, he will still make her his.
-
On Qingming, a fine rain falls.
Dressed in mourning white, Wen Yu stands before her late husband's grave, secretly plotting her escape.
Lu Xianzhou traps her between the cold stone monument and himself, his knuckles pressing against the pulse in her throat. His voice is low and hoarse, wrapped in years of restrained love and hatred:
“If you insist on running away, you'll only ruin your reputation. Either way, you'll end in defeat. You may as well be ruined by me.”
Years of decorum are torn apart, and forbidden, frenzied desire breaks free. This all-consuming push and pull, hidden from every prying eye, can never be undone.
[Reading Guide]
Old lovers reunite | Forbidden tension | Obsessive and possessive | Coercive romance
The male lead is a powerful courtier in public, but inwardly consumed by obsession and begging for love.
The female lead is not a virgin; the male lead is a virgin. | Happy ending
[Upcoming novel: The Minister's Wife]
Everyone in the capital knows that Pei Yun, the regent, is cold and ruthless, indifferent as frost. He has spent half his life amid the twists and turns of court politics and has never allowed any woman into his heart.
Yet every night at midnight, the regent's secret vermilion-lacquered sedan chair quietly stops outside the deepest little courtyard in East Lane.
The wife of a newly married general under his command lives there. She is the obsession he has hidden for so long, kept from the light and never dared reveal.
-
The emperor holds a banquet to see off the soldiers departing for the northern frontier.
Pei Yun sits at the emperor's side, his gaze fixed intently on one corner below.
Amid the lights and banquet tables, Shi Wei gazes tenderly at the man beside her and softly calls her husband's name.
The assembled officials notice nothing amiss. No one sees the regent's fingers clenching a lustrous pearl earring beneath the sleeve of his court robe.
That night, he breaks into her room and pins her against the dressing table. The bronze mirror reflects the woman's reddened eyes as he bends to kiss the cinnabar mole on her neck, his voice low and threatening as he presses her step by step:
“Call me by my name.”
-
Shi Wei detests his overbearing possession, wielded through the power he holds, but she doesn't dare defy him. The lives of her entire family rest on his whim. All she can do is endure and yield, forced to bear his boundary-crossing obsession.
Not long afterward, her husband wins a great victory in the northern campaign.
Shi Wei stands at the door, eagerly waiting, but a pair of scorching hands pulls her into the shadows beside a corridor pillar.
Pei Yun traps her in the narrow space, fire and ice mingling in his eyes. Each word is sharp with cold: “Where did he touch you?”
Shi Wei trembles all over, yet answers frankly, word by word: “He is my husband.”
He presses his thumb harshly against her lips, obsessively erasing another man's traces. “From tonight onward, he won't be.”
Shi Wei assumes he is raving.
But three days later, her husband is charged with the grave crime of colluding with the enemy.
In a blizzard, Shi Wei kneels for hours outside the regent's residence, from the depths of night until dawn.
The vermilion gates open. Wearing a black cloak embroidered with cranes, Pei Yun steps out through the snow, finally laying bare the infatuation he has hidden and endured, with nothing left to conceal:
“If you are willing to ask me, there is nothing in this world I would refuse you.”
“Shi Wei, from now on, you can belong to me alone.”
[Content warnings]
▷ Status difference | Coercive romance | Obsessive possessiveness
▷ The heroine is married and has been with someone before; the female lead is not a virgin.
▷ The male lead is forceful and takes what he wants at first, then begs for love later.
▷ Tension throughout | Happy ending
Theme: Only in desperate circumstances can one break free of the cocoon and be reborn.
