I Mistook a Treacherous Minister for My Lover

[Coming soon: "I Tossed Away the Romance Script" and "The Crown Prince Bows to Her." Please add them to your collection!]

Blurb:

Li Qingdai learned excellent medical skills from a young age, but an accident caused her to lose part of her memory.

Li Qingdai doesn't remember that she was once forced to treat the wealthy young master Zhuang Tanjing, or that she poisoned him to save her own life. Instead, she thinks of him as her beloved.

Her beloved, Zhuang Tanjing, is refined and distinguished, holds great power, and is deeply trusted by the emperor. He's perfect in every way, except that he's a little clueless about romance.

Li Qingdai once heard that your heart beats faster when you see the person you love, but when she sees her beloved, hers doesn't.

She runs over to ask him, "Why is that?"

Zhuang Tanjing is writing with a brush. At her question, he looks up and glances at her. "What's so difficult about that? Go run a couple of laps outside, then come see me. Your heart will naturally beat faster."

Li Qingdai: ...That does sound reasonable, but somehow it still feels wrong.

*

At first, Zhuang Tanjing thinks he only wants to use Li Qingdai.

Until the day she leaves without a word. He searches nearly all of the capital and still can't find her. For the first time, the man who has always stayed calm in a crisis loses his composure.

When he finally catches her, Zhuang Tanjing suddenly shows mercy and gives her two choices: marry him, or never appear before him again.

"I know I'm just a country girl. I'm not good enough for you," Li Qingdai says, struggling to the bitter end.

"If I say you're good enough, then you are." Zhuang Tanjing smiles faintly.

"Then I'll choose the second option."

"Why don't you think it over?"

Li Qingdai glances at the sword resting against her neck. "No need. You're handsome and accomplished, so naturally I'll choose the first."

Reading guide:

1. This story is set in an imaginary world. Please don't try to match it to real history.

2. One-on-one romance, both chaste. The male lead is scheming and possessive, and not a good person. The female lead is sometimes timid, but knows when to yield and when to stand firm. Neither protagonist is perfect.

3. The author is not a medical student. Most medical information in this story is based on research and will be noted in the text. Some parts have been embellished or made up, all in service of the plot.

Coming soon: "I Tossed Away the Hopeless Romantic Script"

Zhaosu transmigrates into a xianxia novel as a hopelessly devoted supporting female character who would give everything for the male lead, a pretty but useless vase of a junior disciple.

The junior disciple comes from a powerful family. She's beautiful, has a sweet voice, and her father is a wealthy city lord. She's a rich, beautiful second-generation immortal who could coast through life, but she's hopelessly devoted to the wrong man.

According to the plot, no matter how the male lead uses her or leaves her family in ruins, she remains foolishly in love with him.

Zhaosu: Sorry, I'm not playing along!

She eats and drinks as she pleases, leveling up and fighting monsters every day to protect herself. By chance, she has a breakthrough and discovers she's a cultivation prodigy.

Hmph! Let's see who dares call her a vase now!

One day, she rescues a scarlet spirit snake from evil cultivators and kindly sets it free. But the snake repays her kindness with a bite before it leaves.

Zhaosu: Help! Is this snake venomous?!

Fortunately, nothing serious happens. She just ends up with a strange red emblem on her shoulder.

Late at night, the moon is hidden behind dark clouds. Through the dense, impenetrable mist, a ravishing man in a vermilion robe appears and calmly walks toward her. "I am the Teng Snake. To repay you for saving my life, I would like to take you as my wife."

How is this repayment? Isn't he just here for revenge?

"No way. We're different species, so we're reproductively incompatible." Zhaosu refuses him with righteous conviction, then takes out an illustrated book filled with all kinds of spirit snakes and says with practiced ease, "Still, it's lucky you met me. I know plenty of pretty female snakes. I can introduce you to some."

Shi Qinyou: "..."

Later, she discovers that the man who said he wanted to marry her is actually the novel's main villain: Shi Qinyou, the demon lord feared throughout the cultivation world. He can shatter a mountain with one palm, and he will become the male lead's greatest adversary.

Zhaosu: QAQ

Is it still too late to run?

"The Crown Prince Bows to Her"

The bright and gentle Crown Prince suffers an injury on the battlefield. From then on, his personality changes drastically, and he becomes gloomy and unpredictable. Everyone thinks serving him will ruin their prospects, and no one wants to work in the Eastern Palace. Only Shen Yizhi volunteers to attend to him.

Everyone laughs at Shen Yizhi for being foolish. She just smiles when she hears them.

They don't know that five years ago, a handsome young man in blue robes rescued her from a pile of corpses and made the years that followed unforgettable.

Back then, she was covered in mud, while the young man was handsome and ethereal, as clear and beautiful as the moon. For the first time, Shen Yizhi understood what it meant to be worlds apart.

Only later does Shen Yizhi learn that the boy who saved her was none other than the honorable Crown Prince, Zhao Yan.

*

At first, life in the Eastern Palace is far from easy. No matter how devotedly Shen Yizhi serves him, the Crown Prince remains cold toward her.

A few palace attendants secretly mock her for being obsequious: even if the Crown Prince has fallen on hard times, he is still a son of the imperial family. How could a country girl like her ever hope to rise above her station? Who does she think she is?

Shen Yizhi overhears them by chance. She lowers her eyes and presses her lips together without a word.

Then, one day, the Crown Prince becomes increasingly "gentle" with her.

After that, the people who used to bully her never appear before her again.

With everything back on track, Shen Yizhi thinks it is time for her to leave after completing her duty.

But when she brings her bundle to the Crown Prince and asks to resign, he flatly refuses. "You're not allowed."

Shen Yizhi opens her almond-shaped eyes wide and looks at him in disbelief, a hint of hurt in her voice. "Your Highness, you promised."

Zhao Yan lifts her chin with his long, cool fingers. "I'm right here. Where else do you think you're going?"

*

In his previous life, Zhao Yan endures countless twists and turns, rising and falling before finally stepping over mountains of corpses and rivers of blood to ascend the throne. Everyone calls him cold and merciless, and even he believes it.

His ministers fear him, his people dread him, and at last he becomes a lonely ruler in name and in truth.

Only Shen Yizhi stays by his side, just as she always has.

Whenever he works through the night reviewing memorials, she gently reminds him, "Your Majesty, it's time to retire."

He had planned to treat her well when he was reborn, but he never expected her to try to leave him and seek freedom on her own.

He won't let her.

Reading guide:

1. One-on-one romance. Both leads are chaste. The male lead is reborn. The heroine is thirteen and the hero is twenty-three. She seems soft and gentle on the outside, but she's strong inside. They won't have a romantic relationship until she comes of age.

2. In his previous life, the male lead didn't understand love. In this life, it's sweet.

3. Set in an imaginary Tang-Song-inspired world. Please don't try to match it to real history.

Theme: Pursue yourself