Marrying My Black-Bellied Younger Cousin

In the years when Ji Yunfu loved Pei Ran, he was a dashing young man, dressed in fine clothes and riding a spirited horse, carefree and brazen.

Afraid she might get her shoes and stockings wet, he would blush as he carried her on his back and wade through the muddy water alone.

He promised her a lifetime of devotion to one another, and she dreamed of becoming his wife.

But on the eve of their engagement, he told her, "A Yun, I fear I must break my promise to you."

*

Xie Xiling never expected that one night, deep in the darkness, the relationship between him and Ji Yunfu would be broken.

That night, fragrant shadows drifted through the room. Ji Yunfu had fallen into a trap, and lay helpless on the bed, her body limp as water. She sent someone to summon her fiancé to save her.

Through her hazy consciousness, a man with the bearing of a crane and the poise of a pine appeared before her.

He looked down at her and bent to lift her chin.

She stared trembling at the man before her. Before she could finish asking, "Why is it you?" he captured her lips. With a mocking laugh, he asked, "Why can't it be me?"

Xie Xiling kissed her with restraint, but his eyes could not conceal his possessiveness.

*

Ji Yunfu knew that she and Xie Xiling were worlds apart. When she awoke from her dream, she fled in a panic, leaving only a letter. Its final words were respectful and distant: Take care, Uncle.

The snow-white paper was swallowed by the dim candlelight in an instant.

Xie Xiling flicked the ashes from his fingertips. His smile was doting, yet brooked no refusal. He gripped her ankle where it rested at the edge of the desk, the veins on the back of his hand twisting into view, and leaned closer. "These past days, when you were intimate with me, did you ever think of me as your uncle?"

/

Bonus scene:

On the day Pei Ran came to his senses, he waited for days just to see Ji Yunfu once. He never expected her uncle to turn him away.

He watched as the famously aloof and indifferent Commander Xie, who was said to have no interest in women, entered the door of the woman he loved. The commander remained inside until nightfall and never came back out.

Inside, beneath the graceful candlelight, the young woman sat astride the young man's lap, receiving his passionate kisses.

Xie Xiling held her waist with one hand, his slightly ragged breathing brushing her neck. Calmly, he said, "Send him away."

"When the fever of awareness burns away, love floods in like a disaster"

"Click to see the aloof heartthrob go mad for love, ovo"

Gentle and resilient heroine x cold, abstinent hero (not really), possessive to the max, ruthless and utterly mad (for real)

Reader's guide:

* Older man, seven-year age gap, second male lead gets the girl

* The uncle is a collateral relative, so marriage is legal

* The leads are all flawed people (specific content warnings are in the author's note of Chapter One)

* The cover is a limited-time CG by Ant Labor

Coming Soon

Launching in February: The Tenth Year of Marriage

Jiang Suiyin and Zhou Linfeng were childhood sweethearts from equally matched families. They had been married for ten years and had a son. Their life was happy and fulfilling.

Then one day, while visiting a garden, she accidentally fell into a lake. When she woke up, she had returned to a day shortly after her wedding, ten years earlier.

Lying on the bed, Jiang Suiyin recalled the sweet and harmonious married life she had enjoyed in her previous life. She thought that even if she got another chance, following the same path and living through it all again would be a joy.

Happily, she turned and nestled into her husband's arms behind her.

Her husband kissed the top of her head, still as tender and affectionate as she remembered him being in the early days of their marriage.

Perhaps because they had not been so intimate for a while in her previous life, she even felt that her newlywed husband was more passionate than ever.

But when she looked up, the deep eyes she met were both strange and familiar.

The man sharing her bed was not her husband, Zhou Linfeng!

He was her husband's elder brother, her stern and formidable brother-in-law, renowned for his ruthless methods and his high office as prime minister: Zhou Fuyan!

Remembering how the two of them had occasionally crossed paths in the household in her previous life, exchanging no more than three polite words, Jiang Suiyin felt as if the sky had fallen.

Yet the brother-in-law who should never have been in her bed now lifted his eyes to her and called her, "Wife."

*

Zhou Fuyan was a solemn, upright, and dignified man. Jiang Suiyin had thought he could never fall for any woman.

That was until he saw his younger brother pursuing her. By day, he was gentle and tolerant. At night, he lost control, pinning her at the edge of the bed again and again, repeating the same words at her ear, "Look at me.

Only look at me."

1) Female lead is a virgin, male lead is not, one-on-one, happy ending

2) Romance after marriage, reborn

Theme: The road may be long, but if you keep walking, you will reach your destination.