A Sinful Homecoming

[Sweet on the outside, dark within x Dark on the outside, sweet within] [Inline comments are open]

Gui Fengxing is the adopted daughter of the Chancellor, favored by the Emperor and honored almost as highly as the Crown Prince. Every man in the capital is eager to pursue her, and she handles them all with ease.

But there are two exceptions.

One is the man she loved when she was young, whom she has no desire to manipulate.

The other is Crown Prince Zhao Jie, who wants to manipulate her.

·

Born the Emperor's grandson and heir, Zhao Jie is exalted beyond measure.

Yet royal kinship is as thin as paper. His grandfather is unkind, his father has been deposed, his uncle attempts a coup, and his aunt rebels. Driven to become a monk as a child, he loses his mother as a result. Forced to return to secular life as an adult, he spends every day walking on thin ice.

After being betrayed again and again by his own family, he trusts no one anymore

-except Fengxing.

He believes Fengxing is sincere and genuine, loving and kind. He plans to manipulate her, use her to take revenge, and seize the throne.

But the moment she falls into his arms, covered in wounds, he regrets it.

·

Fengxing knows that Zhao Jie has lived a bitter life, so she readily offers him compassion. But he is the one who made her lose her family and friends, leaving her utterly alone.

She also knows he loves her, so she shamelessly torments him to vent her hatred.

After all, love and hate are so alike that he cannot tell them apart.

·

Zhao Jie needs Fengxing's love, and gets it just as he wishes.

Fengxing cherishes him, trusts him, and depends on him, but she also often overthinks things, suddenly grows distant, and keeps putting him through the wringer.

He knows full well that it is because he once hurt her, making her anxious and insecure.

It is all right. He will cherish her all the more, protect her, and help her heal.

But he has overlooked one thing: how could the Chancellor's adopted daughter be an innocent little rabbit?

She was pretending.

He fell for it.

#Even if you can tell the difference, does that mean you can't be manipulated?

#Perhaps the one who is truly anxious and insecure is someone else

Reader's Guide:

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. The male lead is ten years older than the female lead.

2. Everyone has different dealbreakers. Feel free to check the pinned comment replies for content warnings. Grammar pedants are welcome.

3. Characters' perceptions change as the story progresses. Their initial and final perceptions may be completely different, and a character's views do not represent the author's.

The related series, The Imperial Censor Before the Throne, is complete.

The wuxia romance The Courtesan is complete.

Coming soon: wuxia romance A Moonlit Splendor

Cool, aloof heroine x dashing rogue

When people in the martial world discuss the heights of lightness skills, two names always come up. Later generations would call them "Moonlight and Splendor."

Nineteen years ago, Qing Nu borrowed the moon for one song and slew twenty-four villains, making her name known throughout the martial world.

It is said that frost fell from the sky that night, and blood ran like a river.

Qing Nu crossed a river of blood without a ripple, like the bright moon hanging in the sky, its clear light shining through the night.

Sixteen years ago, the noblewoman Shi Heng married the young lord of Wucheng, a match known to all under heaven.

On the wedding day, heroes from across the martial world gathered. Shi Heng wore golden bells around her ankles, yet each step made no sound. She trod on fallen leaves without damaging a single one, and passed over incense ash without leaving a trace.

A bright moon, a fleeting splendor. Peerless lightness skills, coming and going without a trace.

Both women vanished like flowers that bloom only briefly, never to appear in the martial world again, yet they left an indelible mark on one man's heart.

·

Bu Shufeng is peerlessly handsome, amorous, and fickle.

They say that any woman who sees him will fall lovesick. Of the thirty-three heavens, the Heaven of Sorrowful Separation is the highest; of the four hundred and four ailments, lovesickness is the bitterest.

Thus the martial world calls him Young Master Bitter Sickness.

But the martial world does not know that even Young Master Bitter Sickness has tasted the full bitterness of longing.

Theme: You must give something up to gain something in return.