My Frail-Looking Chancellor

The blurb for my next story, How to Get Yourself a Sickly Beauty, is at the end!

#Mutual Pining, Fluffy Romance#

Shang Lang has a fresh spring beauty and a natural gift for learning. At just sixteen, he was named the top candidate in the imperial exam by the late emperor. He later helped the seventh prince ascend the throne, and rose through the ranks to become the youngest prime minister in Great Huan at the age of twenty-seven.

Brilliant minds bring their own troubles. Despite his talent, he's so frail he has to take medicine with every meal.

Gu Qiao became emperor at a young age and learned early to hide his emotions. He treats all his ministers with equal favor, but he dotes on Shang Lang alone. He never makes Shang Lang stand during court, and in winter he even brings him into the palace, worried the underfloor heating in the prime minister's residence won't be warm enough.

For a while, this makes the ministers suspect that Prime Minister Shang is using his looks to seduce the young emperor and make him a puppet, so he can seize power.

Impeachment memorials fly into the imperial study like snowflakes. Gu Qiao grips his vermilion brush and glances at the prime minister seated beside him, supervising his review of memorials. He sighs inwardly: It's clearly me who has improper feelings for Prime Minister Shang.

Prime Minister Shang is humble and self-disciplined, a paragon of virtue and restraint. He strictly observes the rules between sovereign and subject. By no stretch of the imagination does he seem like someone who would seduce the emperor with his looks.

Gu Qiao thinks he'll have to pine in secret for the rest of his life, never imagining that Shang Lang, drunk at Gu Qiao's birthday banquet, would clutch his sleeve and confess his true feelings.

Gu Qiao grips Shang Lang's pale, strong hands, wrinkling the imperial yellow sleeve. He clasps them in return and asks, eyes red and voice low, "Prime Minister Shang, are these drunken ravings or the truth spoken under the influence?"

Shang Lang looks up at him and answers, word by word: "I would never deceive Your Majesty."

The wine is strong, and though Shang Lang is ill, he is surprisingly strong. By the time Gu Qiao realizes something is wrong, it's too late to change what has happened.

When the effects of the wine wear off, the young emperor grits his teeth and glares at the innocent-looking man before him. "Shang Lang!"

Didn't you say you would never deceive me?!

[One-on-one, mutually devoted]

Ambitious, sickly beauty of a scheming minister gong x emperor shou who looks innocent but is actually cunning, and ends up losing his own game

[Reader's Notes]

1. The gong may be sick, but he's perfectly capable. The shou is just inexperienced in love.

2. I wrote this fluffy story to clear my head. There's no outline, so just enjoy reading and don't overthink it.

3. The writing is amateurish. If it's not your thing, feel free to leave. No need to tell me you're dropping it.

[Coming Soon]

How to Get Yourself a Sickly Beauty

#Puppy and Teasing Beauty#

Lu Chengjin hears that a demon lord who kills without batting an eye lives in Phoenix Flame Valley outside the city. When he falls from a tree, he expects to die in the valley, but when he looks up, he sees a sickly beauty.

The beauty is named Xiao Zhezhu. He's so frail he gasps for breath every few steps. Lu Chengjin can't see even a trace of the fearsome demon lord in that pale, gentle face.

But Xiao Zhezhu reaches out to him, offering to cure his younger sister's chronic illness if he stays in the valley. Lu Chengjin takes the other's cool, pale hand and learns that appearances can be deceiving.

Having heard all the stories about demonic cultivators, Lu Chengjin enters the valley prepared to die. Instead, Xiao Zhezhu takes his hand and brings him to his bedroom to live with him. He even hugs him outright.

Lu Chengjin: "?!"

He'd considered every possible reason Xiao Zhezhu might have, but never imagined the man was lusting after his body, literally.

The demon lord is suffering from a deadly cold poison and needs someone with an extremely yang constitution to save him. Lu Chengjin is the lucky person Xiao Zhezhu has chosen.

Though he's in poor health, Xiao Zhezhu insists on teaching Lu Chengjin swordsmanship himself. With a single sword stroke, frost chills fourteen provinces. Amid the shadows of swords in the bamboo grove, Lu Chengjin catches a glimpse of the noble gentleman who once stood alone against the world's malice.

When Lu Chengjin learns that this kind of sincere companionship can only treat the symptoms, not the cause, he lies across Xiao Zhezhu's lap, wraps his arms around his waist, and mumbles, "Do you have to refine me into an elixir to save yourself?"

A pair of cool, gentle hands settles on his forehead. Xiao Zhezhu's voice is lazy. "Don't overthink it..."

"Dual cultivation would work too."

Lu Chengjin: "!"

#I think he's flirting with me, and I have proof#

[One-on-one, mutually devoted]

Loyal, upright puppy gong x gentle, teasing, sickly beauty shou

Theme: Work together to overcome difficulties