[Plump, clueless beauty x cold, domineering patriarch]
[Possessive pursuit / marriage first, love later / age gap]
The Duke's residence had been shrouded in gloom lately.
The pampered young lady, raised in the inner quarters since childhood, had been found to be pregnant. No matter how many questions they asked, she couldn't explain who the father was.
Only when a groom volunteered to confess did the uproar finally quiet down.
Everyone in the household knew the young lady was innocent and naive. After the incident, no one mentioned it again, and life gradually returned to its former calm.
Only one person lay awake at night.
In the dead of night, an embroidered knife lifted the gauze curtain.
The visitor was her uncle, Song Zhuoyun.
The man still carried a murderous chill about him as he pinned the delicate young woman to the bed and demanded, "I haven't come to see you these past few days..."
"Besides me, does Yingying have any other lovers?"
Song Qianying, still drowsy, timidly counted on her fingers. "My cousin often brings me pastries. Second Brother Li secretly takes me kite-flying, and..."
Her bewildered eyes blinked.
"Do those count too?"
*
In Song Qianying's eyes, her uncle was the kindest person in the world. He often came to visit her, sometimes bringing her curious little gifts, sometimes keeping her company as they gazed at the moon and talked.
But on a spring outing on the lake, her uncle took her into a private cabin on a pleasure boat. The gauze curtains swayed, the water rippled, and Song Zhuoyun trapped her inside and began to remove her outer robe.
"U-Uncle?" Terrified, she trembled all over and desperately pushed against the man's chest.
He only chuckled and kissed her neck, his long fingers tugging open her sash without hesitation. "If Yingying doesn't cooperate, Uncle will tell your father about the time you sneaked out of the residence."
At his words, she cried even harder, but all she got in return was even more merciless treatment from her uncle.
After the storm had passed, he gently wiped away her tears and warned her in a low voice, "If your father finds out, Uncle won't be able to come and play with you anymore."
Song Qianying nodded dazedly. From then on, she left a window open for him every night.
*
When Song Zhuoyun first came to the residence to discuss matters with his elder brother, he thought his niece was beautiful but foolishly innocent.
She leaned against the swing and smiled faintly at people, unknowingly making it seem as though she was flirting. If no one kept a close eye on her, some other man might see her and trick her away.
He was about to turn and leave when Song Qianying lifted her skirts and ran over, looking up at him and sweetly calling, "Uncle, would you come play on the swing with me?"
Song Zhuoyun gazed at her for a moment and thought that if such a winsome, guileless girl was bound to be taken advantage of, he might as well be the first to keep her in the palm of his hand.
Since she didn't understand the need to keep her distance, he would teach her what propriety between men and women meant... And so, in secret, he took his fill of sweetness.
When the pregnancy scare arose, he finally realized how many men there were around her, and suddenly found himself wanting to marry her.
But Song Qianying blinked her clear eyes and said innocently in a soft voice, "But Father said I've already accepted my cousin's betrothal gifts, so I can't take it back."
"You can't take it back?" Song Zhuoyun's eyes darkened, and he let out a cold laugh. "Tomorrow, I'll have your father call off that engagement."
"Think carefully about who you should marry!"
(The heroine's pregnancy is a false alarm. There is a ten-year age gap between the leads.)
Reading guide:
1. Plump, clueless beauty x cold, domineering patriarch; a guiding-type lover; ten-year age gap; the heroine's pregnancy is a false alarm.
2. Happy ending, both leads' first and only partner, short story.
3. Set in an imaginary dynasty. Please don't nitpick historical accuracy.
Theme: You are my boundless freedom.
