After Breaking the Love Curse with the Regent

[Next Book: Steal My Younger Brother's Wife. Feel free to visit my author page and add it to your favorites]

Everyone says that Crown Prince Jiang Huaiqing loves his wife more than life itself.

Only Liu Guiyan understands that he merely wants to use her as a human shield for the woman he loves. He even drugged her and married her for that purpose.

Once she was no longer useful, he could even send her to her death with his own hands for the sake of his beloved.

When Liu Guiyan opened her eyes again, she had already been drugged.

Determined not to repeat her past mistakes,

she resolutely grabbed the dark figure approaching her beneath the frosty moonlight:

Yue Xilou, the regent who commanded great armies and wielded power over the realm.

She had assumed this powerful official, who never showed interest in women, would disdain doing such a thing with her. In his fury, he might even have her killed on the spot.

Liu Guiyan began to regret her decision.

But before she could let go,

the man who had never bowed to anyone lowered his head to her first.

His thin lips were cold as the depths of winter, yet when they covered hers, they carried a profound tenderness that seemed to come from another lifetime, burning until her heart trembled.

-

[The Male Lead's Story]

Yue Xilou bore a blood feud.

In his previous life,

he severed all ties of affection and devoted himself to revenge, personally sending every one of his enemies to the underworld.

But in the end, when he sat alone upon the throne, he regretted it. In the dead of night, all he could think of was the girl who had stolen his heart at first sight during the Lantern Festival on the Magpie Bridge years ago.

Everything returned to the beginning.

Beneath the bright frost-white moon, the young woman stumbled toward him, her almond eyes glistening as she looked at him, hopeful yet uneasy.

Yue Xilou could barely breathe.

His lips trembled violently, but he bit down hard, daring not to call out to her.

No matter how happily she ran toward him in his dreams, the moment he spoke, she would disappear. How many years had it been?

-

Everything in the world follows its own way.

Though he did not know why he had been reborn, since the heavens had taken pity on him and returned her to his side, he would never let go again. Whatever hardships lay ahead, she need not fear. He would shield her from the wind and rain, and give everything for her.

But when he had prepared the betrothal gifts and was about to propose, the room, still steeped in passion, was already empty.

All that remained were two jade hairpins, five taels of silver in small change, and a copper coin.

The amount was exact.

Beneath them lay a crooked note she had written while utterly exhausted, trembling in the wind: P-Please settle the bill.

Soon after, her maid began secretly visiting Chang'an's various male courtesan houses to find her a lover, someone who could help dispel the lingering love curse.

She stressed again and again that he had to be sweet-talking, cheerful, and skilled.

He absolutely could not be a stone-faced man.

The stone-faced Regent, who was skilled but neither sweet-talking nor cheerful: "..."

-

★ This book enters VIP serialization on November 22.

★ After I "forced" the Regent to dispel my love curse, he offered himself as my lover and insisted on becoming my kept man.

★ Both leads are reborn; the male lead's secret love finally comes true.

(Blurb dated July 22, 2023; second version July 29, 2024; third version November 7, 2024)

Blurb for Steal My Younger Brother's Wife:

★ Both leads are sexually inexperienced; brothers compete for her | Marriage first, love later

★ Gentle beauty X aloof man devoted to Buddhism at first, later a dark, twisted ghost of a man

Wen Songyi had an exceptionally good marriage prospect.

His name was Li Congxin. Born into a marquis's household, he was spirited and often stood up for her, always taking her side. He was a blazing sun that never set over her desolate years at home.

But for some reason, after they married, his temperament changed completely. He stopped talking and barely paid her any attention. At night, he even insisted they sleep in separate beds.

After much effort, she finally warmed this iceberg and consummated their marriage with him, thinking their life together was finally about to improve.

Then one day, on a stormy night,

thunder jolted her awake. In her daze, she thought she heard her husband calling for her, his voice full of anguish.

She hurried out of bed to look for him.

She saw "Li Congxin" strolling over from the covered walkway, with nothing about him out of place except for the dampness of the rainy night.

She hurried after him and asked, "What's wrong?"

He merely held her and gently reassured her as usual. "It's nothing. A thief broke into the house, but it's taken care of. Don't be afraid, Mimi."

His bloodstained hand slipped discreetly into his sleeve.

He clenched a seal engraved with his younger brother "Li Congxin's" name. Though it still held the warmth of having just been forcibly taken from its owner, the scent of bodhi incense clinging to him completely concealed it.

*

Li Congjia was born into a military family. He joined the army at thirteen, took command at seventeen, and at eighteen crushed the enemy forces at the border passes. He was named General Who Guards the Nation, with a brilliant future beyond measure.

But at twenty, he knelt on a meditation cushion in a temple, wanting only to become a monk.

Only after his mother begged him again and again did he put off taking his vows and return home to impersonate his missing twin brother and marry his new bride in his place.

He was doing no more than repaying the marquis's family for raising him all these years. He did not think he would fall for her. Once his younger brother returned, everything would go back to normal.

But some people seem destined to be his undoing.

She had done nothing special. She merely brought him meals and waited for him to come home. Yet he could not help thinking of her, could not stop longing for her. In his midnight dreams, all he saw was her smiling face, her delicate hand tugging at his sleeve, and the soft, lilting way she called him "husband"...

Those who covet their brother's wife shall fall into the Avici Hell forever, never to be reincarnated.

Theme: I have a bright pearl, long confined by the dust and toil of the world. Now the dust is gone and its radiance shines, illuminating countless green peaks.