Winning Over That Black-Hearted Imperial Tutor

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The Thousand-Layer Schemes of a Two-Faced Merfolk and My Sickly Little Husband Is a Red Lotus (GB): Flopping around and begging for your follows! Blurbs below~

A scheming fox empress who toys with people's hearts and drags the untouchable beauty off his pedestal

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A cold, catlike imperial tutor, a black-hearted lotus who's both gentle and bad-tempered

#The Tyrannical Empress and Her Charming Imperial Tutor#

#A Forced Relationship May Not Be Sweet, But It Sure Is Filling#

#A Thousand Ways to Drag an Untouchable Beauty Off His Pedestal#

On the day Zhong Chuling ascended the throne, she struck a deal with the Xie family. To save the family's disappointing second young lady, the next day Xie Anzhi was sent into the palace by his relatives.

Looking at the empress he had personally taught the ways of governing a country, Xie Anzhi thought: There's nothing to say. I just forgot to teach you how to behave.

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Zhong Chuling's father died early, and her mother assigned her to Noble Lord Xie to raise. But Noble Lord Xie had a child of his own, and naturally had no extra love to spare for her. Back then, his nephew Xie Anzhi had been ordered to enter the palace and teach his cousin, the Sixth Prince, about the Dao. He would always spot Zhong Chuling secretly learning, sprawled by the window.

Just an un-favored princess, Xie Anzhi thought.

Born into a prestigious family, Xie Anzhi was gentle and refined on the surface, but in truth he was ruthless and calculating in pursuit of his family's interests, a thoroughly black-hearted lotus. When he realized his cousin, the Sixth Prince, had no interest in the throne and only wanted to serve the people, he unhesitatingly chose Zhong Chuling, who had little of a mind of her own. He planned to use her status as Noble Lord Xie's daughter to make her a puppet through whom the Xie family could control the court. He never imagined that one day the puppet would turn the tables on him.

Stage One: I don't care about your affection. Don't expect me to become one of those spineless men in the inner palace.

Stage Two: Zhong Chuling, you're imagining things! Look at the sword in my hand! Don't touch me!

Stage Three: I beg Your Majesty for mercy. Spare the Xie family.

But just as he gradually fell deeper into her affection, he discovered that she seemed never to have loved him at all.

"In the eyes of the world, I dote on my Phoenix Lord. But they don't know that to me, he's just like the cat I raised as a child. When it's feeling proud, it ignores you. When you stop pampering it, it starts acting sweet, rubbing itself against your legs. So the way I treat him now is simply to see whether he's submissive at heart."

Unlike the other imperial heirs, Zhong Chuling did not grow up in the palace. When she was little, that person led her by the hand and abandoned her in a teeming crowd. She was left to fend for herself among the common people, enduring humiliation after humiliation, and did not return to the royal family until she was a teenager.

When she returned to the palace, that person greeted her with an indifferent expression and a respectful bow. "Welcome back to the palace, Your Highness."

He acted as though none of it concerned him, as though he had forgotten that her misfortune was his doing.

How could he be so shamelessly untroubled?

So Zhong Chuling deliberately concealed her abilities, letting the ambitious man support her rise to the throne, then turning on him and imprisoning him in the palace, destroying his ambitions.

That still wasn't enough. She wanted to break his pride, soften his heart, make him betray his dreams and become a man trapped in the inner palace.

Her struggles to survive outside the palace had not turned Zhong Chuling into a pushover anyone could bully. They made her fiercely determined. Once she became empress, the abilities she had kept hidden were finally unleashed.

Those smarter than her couldn't beat her, and those stronger than her couldn't outscheme her. She could have continued along the path to emperorship she had planned for so long. Unexpectedly, the man in the palace, whose spirit had not been completely broken, became an unforeseen complication in her schemes, and the two of them fought each other to the bitter end.

* A melodramatic story of the leads pushing each other to their limits and tormenting each other in body and soul. This author really does bring the angst, and loves old-school physical and emotional torment. If that's not for you, run, run, run!

* A strong heroine and a capable hero. The adorable husband is being tamed.

* Their mutual hostility is all a misunderstanding. Their love is pure.

* The male lead is eight years older than the female lead. He's a proud, catlike beauty who's very easy to fool.

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* The story takes place in a matriarchal society where women are superior and men are inferior. It's difficult for men to enter officialdom, but not impossible. Please don't read anything into real-life gender relations. I simply love seeing an ambitious, capable man become love-struck. One woman can marry multiple husbands. The setting is very loosely based on reality, with lots of original worldbuilding.

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* As usual, women give birth, and their bodies have normal reproductive anatomy. If you like stories where men give birth, please find one that suits you. Don't come asking me again why the women give birth.

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* Reasonable suggestions and criticism about the logic, writing, characters, and so on are welcome. I don't accept baseless negative reviews or personal attacks. I really enjoy chatting with people in the comments, so please don't make assumptions based on the blurb, leave comments just to list your dislikes, or insult the characters. (Praying earnestly with hands clasped.)

* Both leads are virgins, and they are exclusively devoted to each other in body and soul.

* Happy ending, with the customary love-hate relationship. √

------ Blurb for The Thousand-Layer Schemes of a Two-Faced Merfolk ------

Hang Jichu, the eldest daughter of Jingchuan's leading merchant family, went out to sea on business for the first time. She came back with a fortune, and a strange creature.

The creature had a human torso and a fish's tail, snowy skin and blue eyes, and the handsome appearance of a young man. In the middle of the night, he would sing enchanting songs. An elder in town said that Miss Hang must have caught a merfolk. They were said to be skilled weavers, able to make merfolk silk that stayed dry underwater.

Hang Jichu, who had been rather uninterested at first, immediately perked up. Wasn't this a new business opportunity?

So she settled the little merfolk in a specially made weaving room. He trembled with fear and, after she threatened and coaxed him several times, helplessly began shedding tiny pearls.

...It seemed merfolk silk wasn't so important after all!

Hang Jichu began researching how to make the little merfolk cry.

For the sake of sustainable business, bullying him was absolutely out of the question. A high-quality merchant's proper approach was to prepare little surprises every day and earn teardrops of pearl from a touched merfolk.

Surrounded by all those gifts, the little merfolk realized that Hang Jichu especially liked his tears. So he cried even harder, and without either of them saying it aloud, the two struck a curious business arrangement.

But just as Hang Jichu was preparing to expand her business and open a jewelry shop, the little merfolk suddenly stopped crying.

He wore a smiling face, his lips curved in a sweet grin. He only sobbed when Hang Jichu ignored him.

Hang Jichu: So should I comfort him or leave him alone?

The little merfolk's moods changed constantly. For the sake of those little pearls, Hang Jichu could only keep him at arm's length, until one day she overheard him talking to himself:

"QAQ, today was supposed to be my turn to come out. Chengli, you broke your promise."

"But I want to eat honey-glazed ham with Big Sister today. She promised me yesterday."

"QAQ, no! I want to eat honey-glazed ham with Big Sister too."

"Oh, it's just for today. You can have tomorrow and the day after."

"QAQ, I don't believe you! You always bully me! You said the same thing when we got caught before, that it would be your turn the next day. But you made me face those scary bad people for days, and only came out after Big Sister started treating me well!"

"Chengliu, you're no fun when you get hung up on things like that. Aren't we the same person?"

"QAQ, yeah."

"Then what's the harm in letting me eat this honey-glazed ham?"

Hang Jichu: ...No harm at all. So can someone please explain what's going on here?!

------ Blurb for My Sickly Little Husband Is a Red Lotus (GB) ------

When Wen Shaoxian woke up and found herself in the body of a village thug in a poor, remote corner of a matriarchal world, she didn't panic.

The beautiful young man beside her, bruised all over, timidly called her his wife. Wen Shaoxian put on a brave face.

It was hard to say whether the original owner's luck was good or bad. After years of stealing chickens and dogs, she still hadn't managed to find a spouse. Then one day she happened to visit town just as Merchant Shang passed away. To humiliate his family, Merchant Shang's husband married off his unwanted concubine-born son to her. But before she could find out what the young man's charms were like, the original owner got drunk, fell headfirst into a river, and emerged with someone else inside her body.

The young man was named Shang Yunzhi. A delicate, frail beauty who was out of breath after a few steps, he inspired pity, and all the men in the village disliked him.

They wouldn't give him work or sell him anything. Every day, they mocked and insulted him to his face. The more hot-tempered ones even beat him, leaving his handsome face bruised and battered.

Wen Shaoxian: Wow, it's a gender-swapped version of Malena.

Her little husband cried over everything.

Wen Shaoxian accidentally ate his meal, and he cried.

Wen Shaoxian made sure to save him a meal the next time, and he cried.

Wen Shaoxian felt guilty and bought him clothes, and he cried.

The heart Wen Shaoxian had kept sealed away after more than twenty years of being single went crack! and broke free.

She thought her little husband was a delicate, charming white lotus, until one day she saw blood sliding off his blade.

Wen Shaoxian: Oh no, I like him even more now.

Shang Yunzhi was reborn.

In his previous life, his father had casually married him off to the village thug Wen Shaoxian. He thought that although life wouldn't be easy, at least he finally had a home of his own, and things couldn't be as miserable as they had been before.

But he was wrong.

The thug didn't care about his efforts or his hardships. When she lost money gambling, she even blamed Shang Yunzhi for bringing bad luck. Later, when the creditors came knocking, the wife he had once looked up to sold him off.

He was passed through several brothels. Because of his stunning beauty, he was sold from a small town to the capital, where he attracted the attention of wealthy and influential men. Eventually, a rich family bought him, and he became their plaything.

His body was battered and broken, and years of suffering left his heart numb.

Let it all end.

He poisoned the people in the household. While they were weak, he took a sword and cut their throats one by one. Watching them struggle and beg for mercy at his feet gave him a perverse sense of satisfaction. But when it passed, only emptiness remained.

He turned his sword on himself, bringing years of suffering to an end.

Flames rose beside him and quickly engulfed him, like a red lotus blooming in the underworld. Even in death, he was breathtaking.

When he opened his eyes, he was back where it all began.

This time, he decided to end Wen Shaoxian's life before she could give him a tragic fate and start over.

But Wen Shaoxian didn't die. Not only did she survive, she changed completely, becoming someone who wanted to build a good life with him.

She knew when he was hot or cold and protected him from harm. She couldn't possibly be the original Wen Shaoxian.

She had to be a spirit from the mountains and wilderness.

Perfect. Spirits and red lotuses were made for each other.

Theme: If only life could remain as it was at first meeting