Jade Prisoner

[Coming soon in my author collection: Spring Breeze in My Dreams. Please add it to your reading list! A plump beauty with a child whose husband has died x her brother-in-law, outwardly composed and cold, but secretly a wolf in sheep's clothing]

Blurb:

Jiang Yuzhao was born in the countryside. In gratitude to her parents, she was taken in as an adopted daughter by the chancellor's household. Though low in status, she had a stunningly beautiful face.

The chancellor's legitimate daughter was negotiating a marriage with the crown prince. Because of her frail health, she had no choice but to choose a concubine to enter the crown prince's household with her, serve him, and bear him children.

Her adoptive elder sister, Lin Qingyi, deliberately chose her.

Crown Prince Xiao Zhizhi was a man of refined elegance and cold temperament, always absorbed in official affairs and never interested in women. After marrying the crown princess, he was devoted to her, and had eyes for no one else.

He never even glanced at Jiang Yuzhao, his nominal concubine.

Jiang Yuzhao thought her adoptive sister would recover within a few months. Then she could ask to leave the household and marry the man she loved, who was waiting for her.

But who could have guessed that, at a banquet one night, the crown prince would get drunk and be drugged? Because the crown princess was frail, he had no choice but to barge into Jiang Yuzhao's room...

After that wild night,

the crown prince gave her a cold glance. His attendant handed her a dose of contraceptive medicine. "Last night was an accident. Don't entertain any other ideas. Just pretend nothing happened."

Jiang Yuzhao lowered her eyes and agreed.

From then on, the crown prince began appearing in her courtyard from time to time. But though they were physically intimate in bed, there was not a trace of warmth between them.

She even saw with her own eyes the scented sachet she'd given the crown prince as a thank-you gift hanging from the waist of his personal attendant.

Jiang Yuzhao didn't want to live like this.

So, on the very day her pregnancy was discovered, a sudden fire burned down a secluded room in the rear courtyard, leaving the crown prince's concubine and her unborn child burned beyond recognition.

Meanwhile, a beautiful younger sister appeared at the side of a borderland general.

The crown prince had long known that Jiang Yuzhao had used all sorts of tricks to enter his household and was a scheming woman who exploited past favors for gain.

So even after she entered his household, though she was aloof and never made advances, and often resisted and rejected him, he assumed she was playing hard to get.

He never expected her to have already fallen for someone else, and that person was his sworn brother and close friend.

He was about to confront her when a fire consumed her and the child in her womb. From then on, there was no longer any concubine surnamed Jiang in the rear courtyard of the crown prince's household.

Until later, at a palace banquet.

He watched helplessly as the woman who should have been consumed by the fire sat there smiling, bearing the identity of a general's younger sister, speaking intimately with his sworn brother and close friend about their marriage.

In full view of everyone, the crown prince, famed for his cool elegance, lost his composure. The teacup between his fingers shattered.

When they were alone, he pinned her against a wall, eyes rimmed red. "Yuzhao, you were carrying my child, and now you want to marry someone else?"

But Jiang Yuzhao simply looked up at him calmly and gave a soft laugh. "Your Highness, what happened between us was an accident. Don't entertain any other ideas. Just pretend none of it ever happened."

She returned every word he'd once said to him.

For the first time in his life, the crown prince felt deep regret.

Reading guide:

1. The crown prince and his cousin never consummated their marriage. Both leads are each other's first and only, one-on-one.

2. The crown prince misunderstands the heroine in the blurb.

Another upcoming book:

Spring Breeze in My Dreams by Lu Deng Deng

Blurb:

Ji Mengchun used to be the most proper person around, gentle and mild, never putting a foot wrong.

Until shortly after she married, her husband died in battle, leaving her a young widow in the general's household, pregnant with their unborn child.

Her former close friend Shen Mingzhu came to her in tears, saying she was in love with someone but trapped by her family's plans for an arranged marriage.

She begged Mengchun to wear a veil and test whether her prospective husband was truly a man of good character.

"Just once. If he behaves improperly, I'll have an excuse to break off the engagement."

Ji Mengchun knew it was absurd, but in the end, her soft heart won out, and she agreed.

But when she arrived, she was shocked to discover that Mingzhu's prospective match was none other than the composed, cold, and aloof eldest son of the Cui family.

He was also her late husband's own elder brother, Cui Heng!

Ji Mengchun was consumed by regret. She couldn't imagine what would happen if her always stern and cold brother-in-law found out what foolish thing she'd done. But she was in too deep to back out, so she gritted her teeth and used the techniques Mingzhu had taught her.

She offered tea with her fingertips, a faint fragrance wafting through the air.

She tested him with words, terrified, hoping he'd reveal his true colors quickly so she could put an end to this.

But Cui Heng sat straight as a pine, his expression distant, rejecting her firmly every time. He was the very image of a gentleman.

Mingzhu, eavesdropping behind the screen, was frustrated. "He really is a gentleman."

Only Ji Mengchun knew that something was wrong!

He rejected her decisively, but deep in his gaze lurked a possessiveness that seemed to strip away every layer.

As he picked up a handkerchief, his fingertips seemed to graze her palm.

His rough fingertips brushed against her, sending a shiver through her.

That touch... somehow felt familiar.

Then, as she thought it over, her face suddenly went pale.

Ji Mengchun had a secret.

On their wedding night, her husband led his troops into battle before they could consummate the marriage. They did not see each other again for three months, when her husband returned victorious and held a grand banquet.

That night, she and her husband finally consummated their marriage, lost in passion.

But when she dragged herself out of bed the next morning, exhausted, and tried to find her husband, a maid told her that the general had already led his troops back to the barracks in the middle of the night.

Ji Mengchun understood. Her whole body jolted, and her fingertips trembled.

...If her husband had already returned to the barracks last night, then who was the man who had spent the night with her?

Ji Mengchun panicked when she realized something was wrong.

She wanted to run, so she immediately told Shen Mingzhu, putting an end to their absurd game of testing someone's sincerity.

She went back to being the young widow of the general's household. When she met the eldest son of the household, Cui Heng, again, she lowered her head, steadied herself, and called him as she always had: "Elder Brother."

Cui Heng gazed at her with dark, fathomless eyes, revealing nothing.

But certain hidden, probing glances followed her like a shadow. When she was alone at night, that scorching scent and cool pine fragrance seemed to linger around her.

Ji Mengchun felt uneasy.

Just then, her husband, who had died on the battlefield, returned.

.

Theme: See people with your heart, not your eyes.