The Forbidden Chambers

On the eve of Princess Ming Chan's coming-of-age ceremony, her maternal uncle, a founding minister, was convicted and imprisoned. The emperor abolished the regency and established the Xiping Office. History remembers this as the "Dingyou Upheaval." When the empress heard the terrible news, she died of grief. Overnight, Cheng Yuntang fell from the clouds into the mud. Her princess title was stripped, and she was confined to the Cold Palace. As she endured one humiliation after another, the man who had recently promised to marry her stood at a distance, not even daring to look at her. Only then did Cheng Yuntang understand how foolish love was. In this treacherous palace, nothing was real. The first time she killed someone with a blade, as hot blood splashed across her face, all she felt was an unprecedented rush of pleasure. Cheng Yuntang maneuvered across the chessboard of power, making everyone a pawn to control and use, until one day a young man wandered into her game. He was lowly, base, and naively foolish. Cheng Yuntang thought that one day, when he saw she was nothing like the gentle, kind woman he believed her to be, he would flee in panic like everyone else. She climbed over heaps of corpses, from princess to regent to the power behind the throne. On the way up, everyone turned against her. Yet when she finally reached the highest position and looked back, it was still those same hands that held her up. Until death and beyond. * Yan Hui had once met a beauty, fragrant with begonias and gentle and kind. "Good boy, come here to me." He thought his peaceful days would last a lifetime. But only when his family was destroyed did he understand that the delicate, jade-white hand before him had been the one pulling the strings all along. An unbridgeable chasm stretched between him and Cheng Yuntang. She was a bright moon and a shining pearl, while he was dust in the dirt, unfit for the light. Years later, Yan Hui climbed out of a mountain of corpses and became a blade that killed with a single drop of blood. Beneath the palace's towering walls, he saw that beauty again. Princess Ming Chan, Li Wangjin, wielded power over the entire court. She was wanton and capricious, with countless lovers. She did not recognize him. The beauty reclined against the couch, languid and relaxed. "Good boy, come here to me." In the warm, fragrant bedchamber, a jade foot lightly touched his shoulder. "Do you know how to please someone?" Yan Hui crawled forward on his knees and reverently lifted her foot. "This servant does." #This palace is both a cage and a sea of desire.# * A cold, ruthless princess x a devoted assassin who loves her until death. Please read before starting (content warnings): 1. The female lead has had previous sexual partners, while the male lead is a virgin. They have a six-year age gap. The male lead is fourteen when he first appears, and the romance begins after he is an adult. 2. The female lead has had relationships with men other than the male lead. My girl is wonderful, so of course everyone loves her. 3. The male lead spends a long time nursing unrequited feelings for her. 4. An alternate world with a jumble of dynasties and extensive fictional liberties. 5. The characters' values do not reflect the author's. I'm a law-abiding citizen. 6. The male lead and the important male supporting characters are pure in both body and heart. Chastity is a man's finest dowry. 7. The female lead is the strongest character in the story. I consider this a harem story, with lots of one-sided crushes. Everyone loves the female lead, naturally. Plot isn't my strength; I'm just writing what I want to read. 8. Told with flashbacks. The male lead does not appear in the flashbacks, but the female lead has relationships with other male characters in them. Please proceed with caution if that bothers you!!! One last historical romance to follow: Far, Far Away. When Ye Qiushui was seventeen, she toured the capital with her fiancé. When they returned home that night, she said goodbye to him at the front gate. He told her that he would come to ask for her hand in marriage in a few days. Ye Qiushui smiled as she watched her reluctant fiancé leave. When she turned around, she saw her usually stern and dignified elder brother standing beneath the corridor, silently watching her, his eyes dark and still. She couldn't help remembering that a year ago, in this very corridor, she had boldly and presumptuously kissed Jiang Ling. He had shoved her away and scolded her in stern, furious disbelief: "We are siblings, nothing more. Don't defy the natural order. Put those improper thoughts out of your mind." * A self-reliant, resilient, carefree, easygoing physician x a deeply moral, stern, old-fashioned man who keeps everything bottled up. Theme: Learn to cherish the person right in front of you.