The Spoiled Concubine's Second Marriage

*My next historical romance will be A Morning of Joy, a melodramatic pregnancy-and-flight story with a groveling arc. The blurb is at the very end.

Ming Jingrou was lowborn and had a dubious past, yet Crown Prince Xiao Yun defied all objections to bring her back to his residence as a secondary consort. From then on, her fortunes soared. Before long, she bore Xiao Yun's first child, and even the Crown Princess had to give way to her.

Only Ming Jingrou knew that this was nothing more than Xiao Yun's charity and payment to her.

Xiao Yun had rescued her from the pleasure quarter years ago, and she had admired him ever since. Even when he ordered her to infiltrate Prince Chengning Xiao Xun's residence as a spy, she was willing to risk her life alone, despite the rumors that Xiao Xun was mercurial, arrogant, and sinister.

After Ming Jingrou's painstaking schemes finally brought Xiao Xun down, Xiao Yun gave her what she wanted, as promised.

On the day he welcomed her into his residence, Xiao Yun looked at her slightly rounded belly. As gentle and refined as ever, he told her, "Now that you've gotten what you wanted, stay here and behave yourself from now on."

Xiao Yun's heart belonged only to his pure and radiant Crown Princess. In truth, the one whose marriage was empty in all but name was Ming Jingrou, the secondary consort everyone thought he doted on.

Just as Ming Jingrou thought she would spend her whole life in the Crown Princess's shadow, Xiao Yun was framed and fell from grace in a single day.

And the man she had feared even in her dreams appeared before her once again.

Ming Jingrou watched Xiao Xun enter her bedroom. He had once again become the imposing, noble man she had first met, high above everyone else.

She gave Xiao Xun an apologetic smile, then plunged the dagger she had prepared into her own chest.

Xiao Xun knocked the dagger from her hand with his sword. Blood gushed from Ming Jingrou's wound, and his voice turned colder still:

"You made my life a living hell for Xiao Yun, and now you want to get off scot-free by dying?"

Xiao Xun claimed Ming Jingrou as his own and kept her by his side.

For Ming Jingrou, every night thereafter, with its silken curtains and passionate lovemaking, became a nightmare she could never escape.

Whenever she woke in the middle of the night beside Xiao Xun, she remembered what he had told her:

"If you don't want the bastard you had with Xiao Yun to die, stay by my side and behave."

Everyone watched as Ming Jingrou went from the discarded Crown Prince's favored concubine to the new Crown Prince Xiao Xun's nameless, titleless bedchamber woman.

They mocked her in private even as they envied her.

Some said Xiao Xun had done this to get revenge on Xiao Yun, deliberately humiliating him by committing the vile act of taking his elder brother's concubine.

As for Ming Jingrou, now that she had fallen into Xiao Xun's hands, no matter how cunning she was, it would do her no good.

She was probably as good as dead.

Then the child Ming Jingrou had brought with her grew older by the day, and people began to notice that he looked more and more like Xiao Xun.

The outside world erupted with speculation, and rumors eventually reached Xiao Xun.

At last, Xiao Xun turned his attention to the swaddled infant he had never once looked at.

For the first time, he lost his composure. "Ming Jingrou, what exactly are you trying to do?"

This is a one-on-one romance, both leads have only ever been with each other, with an obsessive, coercive relationship and a short groveling arc.

A Morning of Joy, a historical romance with a groveling arc

Wei Qiongzhi was born beautiful as a flower, but an injury to her head as a child left her a little slow-witted.

After her parents died suddenly, her older sister pushed her into becoming the concubine of Pei Yanzhou, heir to the Marquis of Rongxiang.

Pei Yanzhou was peerlessly handsome, and had made a glorious name for himself on the battlefield at fifteen. Then an accident injured both his legs, leaving him unable to walk properly, and even his betrothed, who had been on the verge of marrying him, used excuses to postpone the wedding.

The Marchioness decided to take a concubine for her son first.

Wei Qiongzhi was beautiful, docile, and an orphan who would be easy to control, so that very night the Marchioness sent her into her son's room.

Wei Qiongzhi married without quite understanding what was happening, but she knew that from then on Pei Yanzhou was her husband, and she should give him all her heart and treat him well.

But after one night together, then another, even though their passion had not faded, her husband would coldly send her away and never let her stay the night.

Sometimes she was so weak that she was slow to get up. He would grow impatient and say coldly, "Hurry up."

Wei Qiongzhi thought Pei Yanzhou had never liked her.

Seeing that his heart could not be warmed, she gradually gave up on him.

For someone as foolish as her, finding a place to live out her days was already enough. Asking for anything more would be greedy.

Not long afterward, Wei Qiongzhi became pregnant. The rumors that Pei Yanzhou could no longer father children vanished in an instant, and peace returned to the Marquis of Rongxiang's household.

As Pei Yanzhou's legs recovered and he was finally able to walk again, his former engagement was brought up once more.

But, to everyone's astonishment, the usually obedient and docile Wei Qiongzhi disappeared just before the wedding.

Pei Yanzhou hurried out as soon as he heard the news, but at the edge of a mountain he found a wrecked carriage and half a bloodstained skirt. A swift current rushed below the cliff, and no one could survive it.

That night, Pei Yanzhou was beaten twenty times with a staff for trying to cancel the engagement.

He emerged covered in blood and continued searching for Wei Qiongzhi despite his injuries.

But no matter how tirelessly he searched, even after nearly losing his life, he never found her again.

Theme: Face life bravely