My Stepson Craves Spring

1.

Xiang Sheng was born into a distinguished family, beautiful and graceful, but her family was falsely accused and destroyed.

A precious pearl fell into the hands of the Meng family's master, and a young flower became the bride of an old man.

Who in the capital could help but lament how cruelly fate played its hand?

Xiang Sheng knew the road ahead would be difficult, but she never expected an assailant to strike on her wedding night.

Clutching a bloodstained golden hairpin, she stumbled into her stepson's room.

The candlelight shone on silks strewn across the floor. Meng Yan looked up with a faint smile, rouge still smudged on his lips. "Your wedding rites aren't finished, and your status hasn't been confirmed. If I drag you to the ancestral hall right now and accuse you of murdering your husband, what then?"

Xiang Sheng watched helplessly as the young man approached.

Meng Yan's ringed finger pressed against her trembling lips. His voice was low and amused:

"Want to live? From now on, you'll do as I say."

Not long afterward, funeral bells tolled throughout the Meng estate, and Meng Yan became the new head of the family.

No one knew that in the solemn mourning hall, Xiang Sheng's back trembled as he held her captive in his arms. "Keep your voice down. After all, tonight, you'll need that mouth to mourn."

2.

Xiang Sheng used the reputation of the Meng family's only son to investigate the clues to her family's extermination, and she made one breakthrough after another.

The exhausting search for revenge left her worn out, so one night she called a maid to massage her and ease her fatigue.

Clouds veiled the moon, and the night was dark.

The maid's hands were skilled. In a daze, Xiang Sheng left a crescent-shaped bite mark on her shoulder.

A few days later, she saw with her own eyes that

Meng Yan's collar hung open, revealing a mark on his shoulder that matched the shape of her bite perfectly.

Xiang Sheng suddenly realized that on the day they first met, Meng Yan's skirt had been half undone, and he still had rouge on his lips.

Could it be... that maid was him?!

"You've only just figured it out? A little late, don't you think?" Meng Yan had already blocked her escape. His thin lips brushed the corner of hers. "Now that you know my secret... why don't you keep it with me, forever?"

3.

Meng Yan had never cared for romance, not until he met Xiang Sheng.

At first, the white mourning banners still hung in the hall. The young wife, newly married and already widowed, knelt on the blue stone floor, weeping prettily, while beneath her mourning clothes she wore a rouge-red bodice.

He deliberately ordered his shadow guards to let the assailants escape. Just as he expected, she fled in panic and fell straight into his trap.

She was terrified and did whatever he said.

From then on, he taught her every soft-spoken word and coquettish smile.

Until the day the spring banquet ended...

He saw with his own eyes as the young wife whispered in an isolated corner to the person he hated most: "Meng Yan? He's nothing but a toy in my hands."

Rage surged through him. It was time to show her what it meant to be so infatuated with a toy that you ruined yourself.

Coming next: I Castrated the Restriction-Novel Male Lead

Su Yao was terribly unlucky. She transmigrated into a female supporting character in an adult novel who had offended the male lead.

The original character was the goddaughter of a villainous eunuch in power. She threw her weight around the palace and used her natural allure to flirt with every man she met, but she couldn't win the love of the male lead, a palace guard. In the end, she castrated him herself.

The male lead had been the crown prince, tortured and abused by the villain. He endured everything and returned to the palace only to seek revenge. His mind had long since twisted, and he needed explicit sex to vent. After seizing power, his first act was to imprison the original character as his concubine and torment her night and day.

Now, in the very first scene after transmigrating into the book, Su Yao already held the castration knife.

Chen Jin was tied to the ground, hatred deeply rooted in his eyes.

This feud was about to be sealed. When dealing with a ruthless man like this, the more you act weak, the more thoroughly he'll devour you.

Su Yao maintained the original character's persona and looked down at him. "If you don't want to be castrated, call me godmother."

*

This time, Su Yao not only spared him, but secretly helped him get revenge.

But he held grudges. He called her "godmother" at every opportunity, but in truth he was set on killing her.

She couldn't just sit still and wait to die. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so she used her charms to seduce the villainous eunuch in power, buying herself a chance to escape.

The day she fled.

Su Yao only wanted to get as far away as possible. She had already put Chen Jin out of her mind. But not long after her carriage set off, it stopped without warning.

The stench of blood hit her. Silence reigned. The horses did not whinny, no one spoke, and even the insects had gone quiet.

She gripped the edge of the curtain, her fingertips cold.

Someone pulled open the carriage curtain from outside. That pale, cold, sinister face loomed close.

He reached in and clamped a hand around her throat, as if playing with porcelain, or deciding where to strike.

"Didn't godmother say she'd stay with me forever?" His eyes were filled with obsession, but his voice was as soft as a lover's whisper. "How can you leave me behind?"

*

After suffering endless torment, Chen Jin had long since become incapable of love. He only pretended to be obsessed with women and indulged in pleasure every night to deceive the villain.

He never thought a woman would be his undoing.

This woman had almost castrated him, acted like his elder, and, knowing he was a "eunuch," used her body to tease him in every possible way.

Naturally, he hated her and wanted to kill her.

But at some point, he began to look forward to seeing her.

When she didn't come, he couldn't sit still. It was as if she'd stolen his soul. He hated her, yet couldn't stop thinking of her. He wanted to kill her, yet waited for her.

She teased him until he was nearly driven mad, then abandoned him.

Hadn't she said she'd stay with him for the rest of her life? One day less, one hour less, and it wouldn't be a lifetime!

Then he would just have to drag her back and keep her by his side, taking from her without end until her legs went limp every day and she could no longer run.

Moonlight illuminated the eyes so close to hers, stirring the depths and unleashing a dark tide.

He carried her out of the carriage and into the deeper darkness of the night.

From then on, every night left Su Yao so exhausted she could barely think.

So this block of ice was dangerously hot to the touch.

Reading guide for My Stepson Covets Spring:

1. The female lead's marriage to her former husband ends before she begins a romantic relationship or intimate interactions with the male lead, including marriage.

2. There is no parent-child relationship between the leads, and they are close in age.

3. One-on-one romance, happy ending, both leads have no romantic or sexual history with anyone else.

4. Disguise roleplay, they set traps for each other at first, then fall in love together.

Theme: We find redemption in love.