The Oriole Hidden in the Forbidden Palace

Gu Nanzhi was the youngest empress dowager in the history books. Her maternal clan seized her power, monopolized authority, and plotted to overthrow the regime.

As a puppet empress dowager, she protected the puppet child emperor and struggled to survive.

In the end, her clan was defeated and wiped out by Prince of Yun Lu Xiujin, who guarded the frontier.

The ministers waited for Gu Nanzhi to be eliminated along with them, expecting her to meet a gruesome end.

Rumor had it that Prince of Yun Lu Xiujin was a violent, bloodthirsty tyrant. To protect her clan's lives, Gu Nanzhi was forced to offer herself to him and become his favored companion.

At night, the man's warm breath brushed her lips as they whispered close together;

By day, he became someone else, restrained and proper, treating her with icy indifference.

She served him in fear, dreading his shifts between warmth and coldness and his unpredictable moods. Yet Lu Xiujin deceived and used her, wielding her as a tool to gradually eliminate her maternal clan.

On the day of the palace coup, Gu Nanzhi tried to escape, but he caught her and brought her back. His blazing hand seized her ankle, while a cold golden shackle locked away her freedom.

"A little sparrow has to be locked up tight, or she'll fly away."

As a captive bird in his palm, Gu Nanzhi feared the night most and longed for the daylight.

After spending night after night together, Gu Nanzhi became pregnant. His response was a cold, "Get rid of it."

Before he could send her poison wine or a white silk noose, a fire consumed all of Changle Palace, reducing it and the pregnant empress dowager to ashes.

The ministers rejoiced that the imperial family's dignity had been preserved, while the regent, who had always devoted himself to governing, fell into despair.

Five years later, while inspecting Jiangnan, he saw a radiant woman holding a small child by the West Lake.

The child was as lovely as a porcelain doll. Pointing at him from afar, he said in a childish voice, "Mother, that man looks so much like Fan'er."

Lu Xiujin was overjoyed, but the next moment he watched helplessly as the child sweetly called another man "father."

And she said coolly, "Sir, you've mistaken me for someone else."

Reader's guide: both virgins, HE.

A regent with two personalities and a sweet, gentle little empress dowager. The leads have an eight-year age gap and are not related by blood.

The hero has two personalities. His main personality, who appears more often, is stern and composed; his secondary personality is deceptively innocent, wild, and yandere, and they are not going to merge, okay?

There are countless good stories in the world. Please respect all kinks that don't cross the line.

Blurb saved as a screenshot on 2022.7.15

Pre-release: My Cousin Has No Heart

[Marriage first, love later / the hero's long road to winning her back]

A distant cousin named Su Su came to live at the Duke of Ying's estate. She was beautiful, with slender brows and bright eyes, as lovely as an immortal.

The heir personally led her inside, determined to marry her as his wife despite the rules of the clan and the gulf in their social standing.

"How can some country bumpkin become the mistress of the Duke of Ying's household?!"

After facing countless obstacles in his efforts to marry her, the heir settled for taking Su Su as his concubine.

After the wedding, outsiders said the heir and his cousin were a devoted couple. Only Su Su knew she was the heir's shadow slave, a gentle blade in his hand.

At home, she had to manage the household and play the virtuous wife and loving mother;

In public, she had to adopt new identities, use her looks, and help the heir expand his influence at court.

He had taken her as a concubine only to ward off unwanted romantic attention and focus on the pursuit of power.

After she was framed, Su Su lost her innocence and suffered serious injuries.

Under pressure from the Duke of Ying's household, the heir cast her off.

She was already a discarded pawn, and now even the heir wanted nothing to do with her.

After leaving the duke's estate, Su Su used her savings to buy a small house and started a business to support herself.

Her business grew bigger and bigger, eventually attracting the attention of the imperial family.

She regained her lost memories, and her real family came looking for her.

A prince of the imperial family lowered himself to personally send a phoenix palanquin to bring her back to the palace. "You have suffered, little sister."

The cousin once mocked as a country bumpkin who came to sponge off the family had suddenly become the imperial family's beloved princess. Her time as the Duke of Ying's heir's concubine was a stain on her life.

The duke's household tried to curry favor with her, offering her the position of the heir's wife. She said coolly, "This princess would rather be sent off for a political marriage than marry beneath her."

[Hero's perspective]

Lu Wujiu was the heir to the Duke of Ying. He entered government service at a young age and rose quickly, focused solely on his career, with a cold and ruthless nature.

Unwilling to let his family arrange a marriage that would hinder him with the distractions of love, he simply brought his shadow slave into the household to put on a show. She wouldn't compete for favor in the inner quarters, made an ideal wife, and could continue helping him expand his influence at court.

But even the most meticulous plans couldn't outwit his own heart. As time passed, he fell for Su Su.

He was the moon in the sky. For him to cast his light over the dust on the ground was a blessing in itself.

Su Su mishandled a task and nearly ruined his grand plan. He cast her off as punishment, wanting her to suffer a little.

After all, she was his shadow slave. Even her life belonged to him. He could beckon, and she would come back.

But after leaving him, Su Su thrived, even transforming into the princess of the realm.

With no longer a gentle, lovely figure in his household, the power he'd once held within easy reach suddenly seemed utterly meaningless.

Pre-release: My Brother's Widow

[Rekindled love / brotherly harmony / fleeing with a child]

Qing Yan lost her memory. Everyone said it was because her husband's death had caused her such unbearable grief that she couldn't bear to remember.

Qing Yan believed it herself.

Qing Yan and the eldest son of the Yan family had seemed made for each other. In the three years after she married into the family, they lived in harmony and treated each other with respect. Unfortunately, Yan Shubai had been gravely ill for a long time and passed away.

"They even said the marriage would bring him good luck! I say he died because she cursed him!"

After three years without a child, Qing Yan was driven from the house a month after Yan Shubai's death.

Not long afterward, she discovered she was pregnant with Yan Shubai's posthumous child.

The Yan family sent a sedan to bring her back, but there was someone else in the household now.

Her husband's younger brother, Yan Changfeng, who was also her brother-in-law.

Yan Changfeng was aloof and cruel, capable of flaying someone with his bare hands. He was known as the living devil of the capital, and everyone feared him.

Qing Yan only wanted to calmly carry her baby to term and continue Yan Shubai's family line.

Yet these two people, who had nothing to do with one another, kept running into each other.

As the child learned to speak, he pointed at Yan Changfeng and said, "D-Daddy."

Qing Yan corrected him. "Lin'er, that's wrong. You can't call him Daddy. You have to call him Uncle."

Yan Changfeng only smiled without a word.

One day, Qing Yan happened to see the living devil, feared throughout the capital, holding a rattle drum and gently soothing a baby in a crib with a loving expression.

"Be good, Lin'er. Call me Daddy."

Theme: Breaking free from a cage