The Songbird in My Arms

[Completed. The full series costs about the price of a cup of Mixue Ice Cream & Tea. Thanks for your support!]

[Coming soon: My Family Has a Little Sister and Spring in the Brocade Tent. Please add them to your collection! Blurbs are at the bottom!]

Blurb:

For generations, the Lin family had been a distinguished family of officials. Lin Zhique was its legitimate daughter, and since childhood she had been betrothed to the legitimate eldest son of the Marquis's household.

The year she came of age, disaster struck the Lin family. They were stripped of their titles and exiled, and no one was spared. Fortunately, the Pei family kept its promise and took Lin Zhique into their home.

The eldest son, Pei Yanzhao, was a refined gentleman. Lin Zhique was content and grateful, and dutifully waited for the day they would marry.

One day, she happened to glimpse someone living in an abandoned courtyard. The youth was extraordinarily handsome, proud and aloof, and his gaze toward her was cold and distant.

She heard that he was the Pei family's second son, born to a convicted slave and despised by everyone.

Unable to bear seeing him suffer, Lin Zhique concealed her identity and secretly visited him. Whenever she had time, she made him brown sugar cakes, kept him company as he studied and practiced calligraphy, and escaped the household with him whenever they pleased.

She treated the youth as her only playmate, and whenever she saw him, she smiled.

Until one day, as she was leaving, the youth called out to her and said with apparent nonchalance:

"Which family are you from? Once I make something of myself, I'll marry you and make you the Marquis's wife."

Lin Zhique laughed at his words. Under the youth's baffled gaze, she blinked innocently and said:

"I'm about to become the Marquis's wife. You should call me 'sister-in-law.'"

She didn't see the sudden, vicious fury in his eyes, hidden beneath his long lashes, or how the fingers tucked into his sleeve nearly crushed his own knuckles.

*

Pei Yanyuan knew he was the stain on the Marquis's household. He had grown up lying low in the abandoned courtyard, accustomed to the fickleness of human nature.

He despised his elder brother's hypocritical stupidity and knew he would replace him sooner or later.

As he waited for his chance, the girl's bright, lovely smile entered his life, the only light ever to reach into his abyss.

The girl said she wanted to marry someone but didn't know how to win his favor.

Pei Yanyuan assumed she meant him, so he personally taught her, deliberately flirting with her day and night.

Then, just when he was close to succeeding, the girl cruelly told him she was going to marry his elder brother.

He hid the depths of his gaze, ground his teeth, and congratulated her with a single word: "Sister-in-law."

Not long afterward, the Marquis's legitimate son was imprisoned and sentenced to death. His younger brother, Pei Yanyuan, did the righteous thing and exposed him, earning great military honors.

He naturally came to possess everything in the Marquis's household, including Lin Zhique.

Deep in the night, Pei Yanyuan tied a plain silk ribbon around Lin Zhique's wrist. His close-set kisses fell on her lovely face and rosy lips as he coaxed her again and again:

"Yingying, say it again. What should you call me?"

1. Both leads are each other's first and only, with a happy ending.

2. The male lead wins himself over. The heroine's true identity will be revealed later.

3. The eldest son, Pei Yanzhao, is not a good person and gets what he deserves.

Blurb for My Family Has a Little Sister:

[Blended family, childhood sweethearts, growing-up romance]

Su Zhi was born into poverty and lost her father when she was young. She lived with her mother and a tea merchant.

The tea merchant treated them terribly, often beating them. Only his son, Xie Wangchen, stood up for her.

Later, the tea merchant fell gravely ill, and Su Zhi's mother abandoned her, fleeing alone with their valuables.

Still young, Su Zhi had no choice but to rely on Xie Wangchen. She tugged timidly at the youth's sleeve, looking pitiful and soft, her almond eyes brimming with tears as she called him "big brother."

Everyone said Su Zhi had a hard life, but she never once complained.

Her big brother doted on her. He earned money to buy her peanut candy, held her gently as he took her to watch plays, and brought every beautiful thing in the world before her.

The days passed, and she thought this was all perfectly natural, accepting it without a second thought.

It wasn't until she snuck out to play and spent the night at a married couple's home that she realized something was wrong

The husband arranged his wife's hair and did her makeup, then held her tenderly before a bronze mirror.

The husband helped his wife bathe and change, gently wiping the water from her hair.

The husband went to bed with his wife, and behind the curtains, they whispered and sighed together.

On the way back after she was caught, she stared at her big brother's hand, clenched so tightly it had left red marks, and fell into deep thought.

The more Su Zhi thought about it, the more frightened she became. But looking at her gentle, inscrutable big brother, she didn't dare say a word.

At last, she found a chance and ran away in a panic.

*

Xie Wangchen was cold-blooded by nature and ruthless in his methods. After his mother died, he grew to despise the entire world.

Then, beneath the warm spring sunshine, an innocent girl appeared before him, following him and calling "big brother" again and again.

Her voice was sweet and charming, her words melodious, and she was as adorable as a fledgling sparrow.

Warmth stirred in Xie Wangchen's heart. He gave her the only tenderness and kindness he had, and carefully raised her.

He never imagined that the little sister he had raised with his own hands would run away without a shred of gratitude.

In an instant, Xie Wangchen's expression darkened, his gaze turned wild and resolute, and every trace of his gentle disguise vanished.

When they met again, Su Zhi had become a young lady of the capital. With her arm linked through that of a young man in white, she laughed freely and happily, as if she had long since forgotten him.

Xie Wangchen showed no emotion. Politely treating the young man as his sister's friend, he exchanged pleasantries with him and personally thanked him for looking after his sister.

But late that night, he took the fingers that had held another man's hand and wiped them clean, one by one.

Then he discarded all restraint and refinement, took her hand, placed it on his sash, and slowly caressed it, inch by inch.

"A Zhi, I raised you. There are many things you don't need anyone else for."

"Your big brother will teach you himself."

1. Both leads are each other's first and only, with a happy ending.

2. The male lead is a seemingly innocent but secretly dark, unhinged yandere with a strong desire to control.

3. They are six years apart in age.

4. The leads are not related by blood, and their romance begins after their former relationship ends.

Blurb for Spring in the Brocade Tent:

[Regretful pursuit, coercive possession, and a rivalry between men]

Su Wanqing was gravely injured and left wandering the streets. By chance, Shen Wentan rescued her.

The physician said the shock had caused her to forget many things.

Her benefactor, Shen Wentan, was the power behind the Tianxiang Pavilion and also a trusted confidant of the emperor. Grateful to him, Su Wanqing willingly placed herself in his service.

Though she lived in a pleasure quarter, it was at least a place to stay. She had no other improper expectations.

Everyone said Shen Wentan was gloomy, cruel, and calculating, yet he treated Su Wanqing exceptionally well.

He put up with her timidity and shyness, smiled only for her, and sometimes even took the time to teach her himself.

Su Wanqing blushed and her heart raced. Experiencing love for the first time, she grew attached to this rare warmth.

She thought that once things settled down, Shen Wentan would marry her, and everything would be proper and aboveboard.

Until one day, Shen Wentan handed her over to General Li Zhou without the slightest reluctance.

Su Wanqing's heart died completely. She raised her tearful almond eyes, then suddenly felt that the man before her seemed familiar.

She vaguely remembered that she and Li Zhou had once pledged themselves to each other in secret. Leaning against his shoulder, she had sweetly called him "husband."

But on their wedding night, he never came. Instead, she received word that he had died while fleeing for his life, along with an imperial edict confiscating her family estate and exiling them.

*

Shen Wentan was born to a songstress and despised by his family from childhood. Concealing himself behind the Tianxiang Pavilion, he controlled the currents of power and became the emperor's sharpest blade.

He and Su Wanqing had met only once.

The girl's fresh, lively smile had lingered in his mind ever since, impossible to forget.

When he first brought her home, he regarded her as an ordinary plaything and absolutely refused to let her unsettle his heart or hinder his path.

So, when Li Zhou proposed a deal, Shen Wentan pushed her away without hesitation.

Only when Su Wanqing ignored him beneath the warm spring sun and turned instead to link arms with Li Zhou, smiling brightly, did Shen Wentan begin to regret it. And when they later became passionately intimate behind brocade curtains, his regret only deepened.

The sight of their mutual affection stung his eyes. Shen Wentan's smile turned cold and sinister, and the broken porcelain in his palm sliced through his flesh, blood dripping from his fingertips onto the ground.

So what if he'd taken a wrong turn? He could simply take her back.

1. Both leads are each other's first and only.

2. Includes a regretful pursuit and coercive possession, plus a romantic rivalry.

3. The male lead is a yandere, the second male lead a cunning general, and the two men fiercely compete for her.

Premise: Love is the free wind in the forest.