Chasing Beauty

[Pre-release: My Heartless Emperor's Crematorium Arc. A rich, melodramatic stew. Physical first, emotional later. Blurb at the end.]

Blurb:

Wen Si had skin as fair as ice and jade and a natural, intoxicating fragrance. After being sent in another woman's place to marry, she was forced to become the wife of the young Marquis Xiao.

Everyone in the capital knew that Xiao Zijue had once been the dynasty's God of War. Now he was a grim, frightening monster confined to a wheelchair and unable to walk.

After marrying him, Wen Si saw how pitiful the young man was, so she quietly helped and cared for him. She never expected to fall in love with him.

But her kindness brought no response. The man who shared her bed treated her only as a caged songbird to possess and keep for himself. He never once said he loved her.

Heartbroken, Wen Si left him a letter of divorce and went far away. Unexpectedly, Xiao Zijue crumpled the letter, his eyes red. "Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find her for me."

*

Wen Si opened a silk shop in Jiangnan. She managed to avoid Xiao Zijue, but she couldn't escape the rumors about him.

Three years had passed. The man could walk again, had arranged a new marriage, and had risen to become the dynasty's youngest regent.

Wen Si's heart had long since grown still. Then she looked up and saw a man in black riding toward the shop. Xiao Zijue was no longer the young man who wore his emotions on his sleeve. She wanted to draw a clear line between them, but the man who had once been as cold as frost now pursued her with shameless fervor.

The road to winning back his wife was long. Later, in the deep of night, the man's knife-sharp features softened with tenderness. "I fell in love with you at first sight, and that love will never end."

[Important: The male lead was once forced into an arranged marriage. He didn't agree to it, but the female side character was his betrothed, though he refuses to acknowledge her as such. The engagement was later called off.]

Pre-release: My Heartless Emperor's Crematorium Arc

1

As Li Rao thrust her sword toward Zhao Hailou's heart, she remembered the past

She had fought a demonic cultivator, and he had taken a sword for her, nearly dying.

She had been bitten by a monster, and he had risked his life to protect her.

Their breaths mingled, and he often called her name in a husky voice beside her ear.

People always said, "Zhao Hailou is a disciple of the demonic path. He practices sinister arts, so his heart must be wicked."

She took Zhao Hailou's hand. "He would never do that. I would never be with a treacherous villain."

She had once thought he was merely misunderstood because of his background.

2

The ancient ferocious beast Chiyan Jinni was born savage and knew nothing of human love.

To heal his old wounds and unite the three realms, he set his sights on the Blazing Heart, a divine treasure from the God Realm that had fallen into the mortal world.

The divine treasure had entered Li Rao's soul. Only by merging his consciousness with hers again and again could he absorb the power of the Blazing Heart.

He hid his identity to get close to her, and sent his subordinates to attack her.

Taking a blade for her and getting hurt in her place had all been ways to earn her trust.

Until the day he finally became ruler of the three realms, only for Li Rao to discover his secret.

Li Rao wanted nothing more to do with him.

She coldly shook off his hand and drove her sword into his heart.

3

In all his ten thousand years of primordial existence, Zhao Hailou had never felt such pain.

He tore out his demonic bones, coughed up blood from his heart, and carefully clutched a corner of Li Rao's skirt.

"Please, look at me. Look at me now. Do you think I'm a good person?"

"I'll give up everything. Please, come back to me, all right?"

[An alternate Tang-inspired setting, demon hunting, romance-focused, a husband-chasing crematorium arc. Weibo screenshot dated 20230414.]

Theme: Love can cross mountains and seas