Chaos at Yushan

In the hot spring, a graceful woman leaned over, a strand of hair brushing the skin at the man's collar. Li Ruoshui leaned back warily. "Your Highness, this sort of thing requires both people to be willing." "Then what should I do? I happen to like getting my way." With that, Wanyan Chizhen let her outer robe fall to her shoulders, revealing a breathtaking sight. Li Ruoshui had always been disciplined and proper. How could he dare look directly at her? He turned his head away at once and said hoarsely, "I urge Your Highness to show some respect for yourself." Li Ruoshui didn't let her have her way, but from then on, whenever he lay alone in his cold bed, her alluring figure haunted his dreams, leaving him waking up drenched time and again. In the end, he gave her what she wanted. Yet the one who pursued him relentlessly was also the one who cruelly abandoned him! That day, he finally learned the truth. The gentle, refined young man wore a face as cold as a collapsing snow mountain, his every word steeped in blood. "It was all a lie? I was only a stand-in for your elder brother?" The woman made no excuses. "Yes." He didn't cling to her. A heartless, unfeeling woman like that wasn't worth keeping. But when he learned she was to marry his elder brother, he slammed his fist into a corridor pillar, a flicker of emotion breaking through his eyes. "If it's a political marriage, I'm a prince too. Why shouldn't you marry me instead?" "So what if you don't want to? You dared to use me as a substitute, so you should pay for it." . Wanyan Chizhen made one mistake: she placed her longing for one person in Li Ruoshui's hands. Even if her intentions weren't pure, she was a princess of a great nation, and a beauty besides. How could he possibly have lost out? But he hated her! And his madness only grew worse! The bridal sedan was switched, and he became her husband. On their wedding day, when she lifted the veil, she found herself not in the bridal chamber but in a dark room with no light. She broke out in a cold sweat. Just then, the heavy iron door swung open. A figure with an otherworldly air entered against the light, holding a small gold-wrapped riding crop and fixing her with a predatory stare. "Who did you think was marrying you? My imperial brother?" "Should I call you my wife, or my sister-in-law?" "From now on, don't say another word to him, or we'll die together." "My darling, if you break your promise, we'll have no choice but to die for love. It's just a pity our child will have to suffer without either parent." My next novel: My Frail Little Companion Maid. Please add it to your reading list, thank you~ Sweet, delicate companion maid vs. cunning scholar-general Yu Yao is the companion maid of Marquis Changping Cui Jingchen. Beautiful and charming, with a gentle nature, she has spent several years with him at the border and is dearly loved by the marquis. But good times don't last. During the New Year, Yu Yao accompanies Cui Jingchen back to the capital to visit family, where the old marchioness finds a match for him. Before the engagement can be arranged, war breaks out at the border. Cui Jingchen hurries to the front lines, leaving Yu Yao behind in the capital. Two months after Cui Jingchen leaves, the old madam sends her a bowl of medicine that will make her barren. "The Chu family fears how much Jingchen favors you. They won't allow you to bear him a child." Only then does Yu Yao understand. No matter how much her master favors her, a companion maid like her will never be treated as a person. She doesn't want to go on living in such a lowly state, so she leaves in tears. When Cui Jingchen returns to the capital victorious, the little courtyard where Yu Yao lived is already empty. The old marchioness turns the blame on her. "That wretched girl ran off with the valuables as soon as word came that you had died." During this campaign, Cui Jingchen was once surrounded at Xiangshuitan. With his life hanging by a thread, he held on only because he wanted to see Yu Yao one more time. The war lasted a year, and he missed her so much he nearly went mad. Yet she abandoned him without hesitation after hearing nothing more than a rumor. Cui Jingchen slams his fist into a corridor pillar, each word dripping with blood. "Good riddance to such a cold, faithless woman. Keeping her around would only bring trouble." Two years later, Cui Jingchen gives up his military command and becomes a civil official. While entertaining colleagues at a restaurant one day, he runs into Yu Yao, who has come to deliver spices. She is dressed as a man, but Cui Jingchen recognizes her at a glance. He immediately looks away, pretending not to see her, and continues drinking with his colleagues. He won't spare another glance for such a heartless woman. But back at the marquis's estate, Cui Jingchen tosses and turns for days. Whenever he closes his eyes, her face and voice come back to him. Half a month later, Yu Yao is woken by urgent knocking. A group of officials arrive with her contract of sale, there to arrest the fugitive maid from the Marquis of Changping's household. Yu Yao looks up toward the carriage at the end of the alley. Cui Jingchen is looking back at her from behind the lifted curtain. Their eyes meet. Remembering their past love, Yu Yao's eyes redden, but all she sees is the man's cold expression and the hatred he can't hide in his phoenix eyes. Please add Locking the Golden Hairpin to your reading list, thank you. Wen Yin was born into poverty and sold as a trained courtesan. When she came of age, she was sent to Prince Regent Chu Shen as a concubine. Everyone said she was lucky, with riches suddenly at her feet. But Wen Yin loved someone else: her scholar cousin, the man she wanted to marry. During the Lantern Festival, rebels caused a disturbance at the lantern fair, and Wen Yin escaped amid the chaos. Wen Yin had been given to Chu Shen by one of his subordinates. He hadn't thought much of her at first, but she tended to his daily needs with gentle care and was irresistibly charming in bed at night. Chu Shen was pleased with her and granted her a measure of status. He thought that was all there was to it. Only when Wen Yin died without leaving so much as a body behind, and Chu Shen fell gravely ill from grief, did he realize that the unremarkable woman had quietly stolen his heart. For the sake of a concubine, Chu Shen vowed to observe three years of mourning, becoming the talk of the capital for his devotion. A year passed. Chu Shen went to Yangzhou to inspect the salt tax. At the gate of the estate where he was staying, he ran into a secretary who had come to deliver an invitation from the prefect, and Wen Yin, following behind him with a shy expression. Chu Shen's sharp gaze cut into her like a knife, but Wen Yin remained perfectly composed, as if she had never known him. Instead, she took out a handkerchief and calmly wiped her cousin's sweat. Chu Shen had Wen Yin seized on the spot and locked away. Pinning her against the wall, he gripped her trembling throat and smiled cruelly. "You die, or he dies. Choose." Wen Yin feared death, but still managed to say, "Let me die. Let him live." Chu Shen's formerly calm eyes turned stormy in an instant. He laid Wen Yin across the bed, tore open the thin clothes covering her, and forced himself on her. "Since you're set on dying, I shall grant your wish." Theme: Help each other thrive.