My Child with the Chancellor

Chu Yunrong was born into a poor family, but thanks to his political savvy and skills, he rose to the position of chancellor at a young age. He was peerlessly handsome, like spring moonlight on snow, elegant and immaculate.

Hong Xiu manages a pleasure house called the Flower Pavilion. She used to be a courtesan, and is alluring, flirtatious, and covered in the stink of money.

The two should never have crossed paths, but somehow, they have a ten-year-old son together.

Back then, the two strangers were set up and spent one reckless night together.

Afterward, the young man offered to take responsibility, but the young woman merely said, "No need."

Not long afterward, Hong Xiu discovered she was pregnant. After enduring many hardships, she gave birth to a son. When the head of the brothel forced her to abandon the child, she reluctantly left him at the young man's doorstep.

Later, that young man went from an impoverished scholar to a powerful chancellor. She still never thought of disturbing him.

The reason she went to see him that day as the child's birth mother was that someone had forced her to.

At the time, Chu Yunrong was holding a book and patiently, tenderly helping his ten-year-old son with his studies.

Hearing that familiar name, he merely said coldly, "I don't know her. Throw her out."

But later, when she tearfully told him how hard it had been to give birth to their son, he handed her a handkerchief and gently soothed her.

After that,

he allowed her to see the child and indulged her in all sorts of outrageous behavior toward him. When she was drugged with an aphrodisiac again, he even let her use him to relieve her desire. He was absurdly tender with her, yet refused her advances.

She thought he was kind to her simply because she was his son's birth mother.

Hong Xiu had seen her fair share of men, but this gentle yet cold-hearted man was the only one she couldn't read.

[From the Son's Point of View]

Chu Huaiyu: One day, I met a pretty woman. She liked shiny gold things just like I did. She smiled kindly at me and kept giving me things she treasured. But I knew she was only sucking up to me because she coveted my father's good looks and wanted to become my stepmother.

Hmph! There's no way I'm letting her be my stepmother! But... since she's rich, I'll generously leave her a window open.

Alluring, sharp-witted businesswoman x aloof, celebrated statesman.

Reader advisory:

* Mature leads. Both the male and female leads have more schemes than a hornet's nest, and neither is a pushover. Their battle of love is twice as thrilling.

* Courtesans sell their art, not their bodies. Still, readers who require both leads to be sexually inexperienced should proceed with caution: the heroine has been with countless men, while the hero is chaste.

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Blurb for the completed novel Beneath the Skirts:

1.

Su Qingyu was the apple of the Yong'an Marquis household's eye. Well-educated, gentle, and dignified, she was praised by everyone as a model young lady.

When she was thirteen, she met a young man from a neighboring academy.

He was as beautiful as a spring blossom, exceptionally refined. Because he was mild-tempered and his family was poor, everyone excluded and bullied him.

Yet Su Qingyu fell in love with him.

One day, she finally worked up the courage to put aside her pride and have her maid deliver a sachet she'd sewn for him with care. She saw him accept it with graceful courtesy in front of others, then discard it in a filthy corner when no one was looking, before accepting a sachet from her half-sister, Su Yingxue.

At that moment, shame and fury blinded her.

How dare a penniless nobody trample her feelings with such careless abandon?

From then on, Su Qingyu joined everyone else in bullying him. She mocked him for being a toad who wanted to eat swan's flesh and even whipped him viciously.

Seeing the hatred in the young man's eyes, she felt both pain and satisfaction.

2.

At the age of twenty-six, the Yong'an Marquis committed a crime and his household was confiscated and stripped of its title. Her husband's family was implicated as well. Su Qingyu went from a pampered heiress to the daughter of a convicted criminal. Meanwhile, Fu Renyu, the poor boy she had bullied, had become a powerful minister who could cover the sky with one hand, and he was in charge of the Yong'an Marquis case.

As his enemy, Su Qingyu was sent to his estate.

The man remained as he had been in their youth: refined, striking, and elegant.

He reclined lazily on a chaise longue, looking at the woman prostrate at his feet. His gaze was as tender as if he were looking at his beloved, but his words were cruel and flippant:

"Please me, and perhaps I'll save your father and husband."

Humiliated, Su Qingyu obeyed his command, setting aside the pride and dignity of a proper young lady to kiss him.

Sensing her reluctance, he roughly shoved her onto the couch and gripped her throat. He pulled the jade belt from his waist and snapped it down, leaving a bright red mark on her pale skin, as if he meant to return every humiliation he had once suffered at her hands.

She trembled in fear, but never begged for mercy.

Like a judge high above her, the man looked down at her with cold eyes. She was no longer a young lady from a wealthy family, yet still refused to let go of her pride and airs. It stirred in him a desire to break her and watch her fall into depravity.

Reader advisory for Beneath the Skirts: The heroine has had previous partners, while the hero has not. Coercive pursuit, love born of hatred, and extreme melodrama.

Blurb dated 2022.6.16

Theme: Cultivate oneself, manage one's family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world.