Flowers Bask in the Spring Sunlight

Scheming beauty x wild wolfdog [The ending will be heavily revised. Don't buy the later chapters.] Xie Zhe was the illegitimate eldest son of the Marquis's household. When he was seven, his stepmother framed him, and his father suspected that his biological father was someone else. As a child, he watched his mother beaten to death with his own eyes. Then he was sent off to the military camp to be put through his paces, where he remained for fifteen years. Fifteen years later, after the dynasty changed hands, the former illegitimate son returned with power in his grasp. In one night, he slaughtered the entire Xie family, sparing none of his own siblings. But that same day, he was told that his legitimate younger brother had a concubine who had escaped the massacre by going to a temple to pray, and that she was pregnant. He Lanxiang had never felt so lucky in her life. In the space of a single night, she had become the only survivor of the Xie family. And because she had been caught up in the political struggle, she became the new emperor's leverage over Xie Zhe. He was ordered to ensure the safe delivery of the child in her womb, or answer for it with his life. It should have been a wonderful thing. But He Lanxiang wasn't pregnant at all. The baby in her womb was a sham, a trick she'd used earlier to win favor. With danger on both sides, if she couldn't produce a child, both she and Xie Zhe would be finished. After turning it over in her mind, He Lanxiang went to confess to Xie Zhe. The man's reaction was surprisingly calm. As he approached, his towering figure cast a shadow over her. His peach-blossom eyes should have looked affectionate by nature, but set in his cold face, they held only scrutiny. He Lanxiang seemed to understand what he meant. That night, she deliberately left her door unlocked. The following month, the physician found signs of pregnancy. She finally learned that Xie Zhe was no thousand-year-old block of ice. He was a raging fire, and once ignited, he would burn without end. - Female lead is not a virgin; male lead is. - May include side couples. - None of them are good people. The male lead is genuinely ruthless. He has no conscience early on, and even later, his conscience only applies to the female lead. - The female lead is absolutely self-serving and won't hesitate to kill, though beneath it all she's fragile and tender, and sometimes shows kindness without meaning to, especially to female side characters. Her relationship with the male lead is a love-hate struggle, with some mutual healing, too. In short, I apologize to readers looking for a purely venomous femme fatale. (I kneel and apologize.) Visit my profile for completed lighthearted romances: The Little Chef of the Court of Judicial Review and My Husband Is Plain-Looking. Theme: When your heart turns toward the sun, there's no need to fear the gloom.