Competing to Be the Fairest

◎ A scheming young marquis who acts like a wastrel x a genuinely sweet and lively young commandery princess raised among ordinary people Young Master Lu has a bad reputation in the capital. The youngest son of the Pingyin Marquis's household, he is an idle young aristocrat from a prestigious family who spends his days chasing cats and dogs and acting like a fool. He holds a sinecure in the Qingping Bureau just to get by, and spends more nights at the Hongfuguan brothel in Willow Lane than anywhere else. His parents and elders call him a wastrel. His colleagues and subordinates say he is ruthless. The women of Willow Lane hate him for being heartless. The emperor regards him as a trusted confidant, yet even with his boundless tolerance, often finds him arrogant and hard to tame. Only Su Jinshu thinks he is a good person. Back then, she pulled Lu Xi from the water when he nearly drowned. He stayed with her in a small town in a poor, remote region, reading storybooks with her, gathering lotus seeds, and getting into mischief all over the hills. He also helped her reclaim her family property and harshly punished those who had bullied her. He helped her escape the prison of her childhood, showed her the vast world outside and its beautiful seasons, then took her north to the capital, where they could frolic to their hearts' content amid its glittering pleasures. Cruel rumors about Lu Xi blew around Su Jinshu's ears like the wind day after day, but she refused to believe them. Until one day, she saw him with her own eyes, dressed in plain clothes instead of fine silks, hurrying through the dark with half his body soaked in blood. White frostlike moonlight fell on his face, making him look like the King of Hell come up from the underworld to claim a life. Lu Xi had wielded a blade since childhood and spent more than ten years walking the edge between life and death. He had never felt even the slightest fear. Only that day, before Su Jinshu, did his hands tremble and weaken. Unexpectedly, the young woman looked at him with clear eyes, clapped her hands, and smiled brightly. “You look so cool...” A nontraditional wife-chasing arc. One-on-one romance. Happy ending. ● Next novel: Springtime in the Eastern Palace A captivating, scheming beauty x a gentle yet wild Crown Prince Everyone in Chang'an knows that the current Crown Prince, Li Yao, is an absolutely wonderful man: gentle as jade and kind-hearted. Even a stray cat or dog that brushes against his feet will receive proper care and comfort. It's all an act. Only Song Qiushe knows his secret. Three years ago... It was a rainy spring night. Song Qiushe was hiding behind a door when she saw him holding an umbrella, helping her cousin down from her horse, and chatting with her with smiles and obvious affection as they reluctantly parted. But after her cousin had disappeared into the residence, turning back again and again, he lost his smile and tossed aside the umbrella, as if shedding a mask. Amid flashing blades, he personally led his hidden guards in slaughtering the entire household. Blood seeped into the muddy earth. A bolt of lightning tore across the sky screen, illuminating his pale, jade-like face, the face of a King of Hell. He dragged a drenched Song Qiushe out from behind the door, and from then on kept her locked in a dark chamber, where she saw no daylight. Every night when she awoke from a dream, blazing red candles greeted her first. Heavy, loose shackles bound her wrists, and the Crown Prince sat beside the bed, his expression icy. Long after she escaped, the sound of clanking shackles still rang in her dreams from time to time, echoing endlessly. Three years later, they meet again and pretend not to know each other. He must choose a consort. She must discuss a marriage match. They should have had nothing more to do with each other, but whenever she looks at that familiar face, she can't help remembering their time together in the dark chamber. Red candles and shackles from that chamber have become her inner demons, dragging her deeper into ruin day after day. At last, on another rainy night with muddy roads, Song Qiushe can no longer suppress her impulse. Holding a lotus lantern, she enters the Eastern Palace alone and pushes open the door to his bedchamber. Li Yao looks at her, his gaze burning like fire. “You actually dare to come here?” In the three years since they last met, Song Qiushe has grown far beyond the timid, gentle girl she once was. She has become the most radiant woman in Chang'an, with a graceful figure and eyes as clear as autumn waters. She laughs mockingly. “I've had a hard time all these years. Why should you get to have an easy life?” The Crown Prince lights the red candles in the room for her again. “Who says I've had an easy life? ...Only now that you've come can I say I've been happy.” Preview: The Substitute Bride The battle-hardened Marquis of Su'an, Jiang Yu, is ordered to return to the capital and marry. Rumor has it he's cruel and ruthless, and kills without blinking. No woman who has shared his bed has ever left in one piece. The legitimate daughter of the Shen family, who has been chosen as his bride, is terrified and falls seriously ill. The Shen family patriarch dotes on his precious daughter, so he digs a concubine-born daughter out of a forgotten corner of the household to take her place. The Shen family is so large its children could line up and circle the garden. Shen Fanghao has spent more than ten years shut away in her little courtyard, living off the family and waiting to die. Because she looks remarkably like her legitimate sister, she gets a marquis's marriage match for free. Their wedding night is nothing but a formality. Jiang Yu doesn't even lift her veil before leaving for the frontier in the middle of the night. The marquis's residence is cold and deserted, overgrown with weeds. She is all alone, isolated and ignored... Shen Fanghao cries tears of joy. With the tiger away, the monkey becomes king. The enormous marquis's residence is now entirely under Shen Fanghao's command, and she can do whatever she likes. When the fighting on the frontier is over, Jiang Yu returns to the capital and steps into a courtyard so gaudily decorated it dazzles him. He has married a wife who certainly knows how to make a mess of things. Jiang Yu is promoted, and Shen Fanghao, as the marquise, receives a noble title and unparalleled favor. Everyone in the capital envies her. Her legitimate sister wants to set things right and switch places again, accusing Shen Fanghao of stealing her marriage. Shen Fanghao refuses to back down. With a cold smile, she turns around and accuses her birth family of deceiving the emperor. The crime implicates nine generations of the family, but married daughters are excluded. However, if Jiang Yu discovers the truth and divorces her, she still won't escape punishment. Shen Fanghao waits in the marquis's residence for the final judgment. Jiang Yu returns from court as usual and takes off his official robe with his back to her, saying evenly, “On our wedding day, I didn't lift your veil, we didn't share the nuptial wine, and we didn't consummate the marriage. So it doesn't count.” Oh, so she's going to prison... Jiang Yu gives a deliberately casual cough and continues, “The emperor says we'll choose an auspicious day and hold a proper wedding. Bring me your birth date and time... Don't try to pass off your sister's. The one I want is you, Shen Fanghao.” Theme: Sometimes it's wise not to know too much