The Princess's Junior Consort at the Hanlin Academy

[The next novel I’m writing will be this one. The full manuscript is already written, and I expect to start posting it in late April or, at the latest, May.]

Pei Cian came from a poor family. That year, he took the imperial exams and won first place, but offended the powerful and wealthy with his blunt words after the results were posted. The top scholar was left with nothing but an idle post as an editor at the Hanlin Academy.

But what dynasty’s Hanlin Academy library would have a brand-new erotic picture book hidden in it? Blushing, Pei Cian frowned and shut the book, whose cover looked perfectly respectable, then decided to find the person who had hidden it.

That night, under a dark and windy sky, Pei Cian grabbed the “book hider” in his arms, only to catch a sweet, intoxicating scent. The tall palace maid Lianhua then kicked him to the ground. He learned that the girl had only been obeying the princess’s orders, and his sympathy for her brought them together as friends.

But Pei Cian gradually realized there was something unusual about this maid.

Lianhua was illiterate, yet could casually quote allusions from ancient books.

She was only a junior palace maid, yet knew the daily schedules of all the palace nobles.

She looked delicate and weak, yet could kick several guards to the ground, and they didn’t dare fight back.

Lianhua grinned. “With the princess backing me, who would dare bully me?”

Later, when the emperor bestowed a marriage upon him, Pei Cian had already prepared to refuse. But when he looked up, he saw the princess smiling beneath the candlelight. Who else could it be but Lianhua?

He thought his wish had come true, but on their wedding night, the “princess” pinned him beneath her.

“I presume you’ve already seen the storybook in my collection, Lord Pei. Why don’t we try it out tonight?”

Li Lianhua was the tenth son of the current emperor. But at his birth, the Imperial Preceptor declared him a calamity star, saying that the curse could only be lifted if he was raised as a girl until the age of twenty. And so the palace’s tenth prince became its tenth princess.

In truth, several of the emperor’s sons had already died young. Li Lianhua, the empress’s legitimate son, was branded a bearer of ill fortune and forced to wear women’s clothes. That left only the eleventh prince, born to the Noble Consort, eligible to be named crown prince.

On the day the crown prince was invested, Li Lianhua discovered a young eunuch secretly slipping an erotic storybook into his chambers, hoping to cement his reputation as a dissolute playboy. While no one was looking, he casually tossed the incriminating book into a courtyard where books were being aired. He had no idea that it was part of a book-drying assignment at the Hanlin Academy, arranged by the Noble Consort to curry favor with the Left Chancellor.

To avoid trouble, he disguised himself as a palace maid and went to the Hanlin Academy.

From then on, an elegant young editor at the Hanlin Academy became part of his life, and Li Lianhua included him in the future he envisioned for himself.

1. Tsundere, scheming princess gong x sharp-tongued, prickly top scholar shou

2. Shou-focused, both virgins, sweet romance, devoted 1v1.

Theme: Some bonds are written in heaven, and love grows slowly over time.