The Emperor's Terrace, a Rare Beauty

[The next novel, Du Furong, is currently being serialized. Please add it to your collection!]

Blurb:

A soft and delicate empress who uses herself to scheme for power vs. a ruthless regent who knows what he is doing is wrong, but does it anyway

When the late emperor passed away, Princess Nangong Yue was only ten years old. On the day the young empress donned the imperial robes, people across the realm all said that from then on, the Great Yong dynasty would be ruled by the Zhao family.

Regent Zhao Yanli held immense power and was deeply shrewd. He was cold, aloof, and utterly devoid of compassion.

To him, Nangong Yue was like a little white rabbit to a wolf on the prairie.

The first morning court session presided over by the little rabbit after ascending the throne ended in a humiliating mishap.

Her ill-fitting shoe rolled down the steps and came to rest at Zhao Yanli's feet. In full view of everyone, the unfeeling regent bent his distinguished figure and personally helped the new emperor put her shoe back on.

From then on, the Imperial Household Department no longer dared slight the frail and helpless new emperor, who had received the regent's humble gesture of putting on her shoe. The officials, too, had to treat Nangong Yue with the utmost respect for Zhao Yanli's sake.

The high officials wondered what Zhao Yanli's aim was. Nangong Yue was equally baffled.

Could it be a strategic retreat?

Could he be trying to preserve his reputation?

She finally found the answer when she turned sixteen and began choosing her phoenix consort.

Zhao Yanli was cold-hearted and decisive toward everyone else, but with her, he became as gentle as a silk thread.

When Nangong Yue was ten, she was innocent and naive. One cough from the regent was enough to make her tremble, yet he often brought sweets from outside the palace to coax her out of crying.

At twelve, she heard that the regent was to marry the Princess of Beiyue. The match had seemed all but settled, but it was suddenly called off. Rumor had it that he canceled the splendid marriage after she ignored him for a single day.

At fourteen, when her first period came, no one in the palace could console the fussy, pampered empress. In the end, only the regent managed to comfort her.

At seventeen, following advice, she began choosing a phoenix consort for herself and, treating everyone equally, arranged a new marriage for the regent as well.

After seven years of being suspected, the regent finally broke into the palace at night, only to force her to withdraw her decree.

That night, the doors of her tightly shut bedchamber suddenly flew open.

The usually composed regent took Nangong Yue's hand and crossed out someone else's name on the imperial edict naming her phoenix consort. Stroke by stroke, he wrote the three characters Zhao Yanli.

Those thin lips that had once said, "There must be a distinction between ruler and subject," now asked Nangong Yue to punish him.

The empress Zhao Yanli had raised had blossomed into a beauty who could charm a thousand hearts. Her innocent manner was merely an act she put on for him.

She was baiting a tiger with herself, unaware that her intentions had long been exposed. He saw through every move she made, but he was more than willing to play along.

Zhao Yanli pressed Nangong Yue against the desk, suddenly closing in to kiss her vermilion-stained lips.

"Punish your subject..."

"For the crime of overstepping his station."

Only after being reborn did Zhao Yanli understand what he wanted.

Power and influence were nothing but a fleeting illusion.

What he had always wanted was that beautiful woman in imperial robes on the throne, deliberately tempting him.

The person he had painstakingly raised, even if she only pretended to love him, had to stay by his side and play her part with him.

"Your Majesty wants power, wants soldiers, wants anything at all. I can give it to you, including the position of phoenix consort."

"Your Majesty's phoenix consort can only be me."

Reader's Guide:

1. A fictional setting with a mishmash of dynasties and official titles. Please don't nitpick the historical details.

2. Focused on romance, not a female-centered power fantasy.

3. The male lead is reborn. HE, SC.

4. Seven-year age gap, and they are not related by blood.

5. The romance begins after the heroine turns sixteen.

Next novel: Dueling for the Phoenix

[Coercive romance: a crown princess-to-be plotting to break off her engagement x a scheming Buddhist prince, the Ninth Uncle]

Shen Ruyi was breathtakingly beautiful, born with the destiny of a phoenix, and had been chosen by the royal family as the crown prince's bride since childhood.

Yet on the eve of her wedding to the crown prince, she appeared before his Ninth Uncle in disheveled clothes, her dress damp with tears, her delicate body trembling, pitiful and vulnerable.

The Ninth Uncle, Wei Chengyuan, had been frail and sickly since childhood. A master had predicted he would not live past twenty-five, so he spent most of his time cultivating at Fahua Temple, Buddhist prayer beads never leaving his wrist.

Under the hazy moonlight, a timid young woman suddenly crashed into his arms. His prayer beads scattered across the ground. From that moment on, his worldly heart stirred, leaving him tossing and turning as schemes of possession began to take root.

Little did anyone know that everything was part of Shen Ruyi's plan. She had returned to life carrying a grudge. In her previous life, her phoenix destiny had led her to marry the crown prince, but she had been tormented to death in the Eastern Palace.

Reborn on the night she went to Fahua Temple to pray for blessings, she ruined her own clothes and rushed into the Buddhist hall, all to escape her fate and break off the engagement.

But she threw herself at the wrong man. Not only did she fail to end her engagement to the crown prince, she also attracted a greedy wolf.

With the court in turmoil, Shen Ruyi was finally about to break off her engagement to the crown prince, but he was no longer willing.

On a rainy night, the crown prince stopped Shen Ruyi's carriage, distraught, and told her he regretted everything and wanted to ask for her hand again.

In the carriage, silent for a long time amid the downpour, a soft moan suddenly sounded: "Don't... The crown prince is still outside."

"Let him listen."

Through the gap in the curtain, their hazy, entwined silhouettes belonged to the Ninth Uncle, the man who had abstained from meat and worldly pleasures. He gripped the beauty's waist and sealed her red lips, not allowing her to say another word.

When the crown prince saw them clearly, it was as if he had been struck by lightning.

"A woman born with the destiny of a phoenix is destined to be the crown princess, but the crown prince can be replaced."

A heroine who plays dumb while hiding her cunning x a handsome, tragic, scheming male lead

One deliberately lures, the other has plotted for a long time

One uses herself as bait, the other takes her by force

Upcoming novels:

Dueling for the Phoenix: Coercive romance, a heroine who plays dumb while hiding her cunning x a handsome, tragic, scheming male lead.

A Fine Match from a Noble Family: Love after marriage, a husband pursues his wife after driving her away.

The Princess's Consort Is Hard to Coax: Both leads are reborn, a Grand Tutor x a princess, marriage by force, love after marriage.

Pray She Falls into My Arms: Showbiz, a cool goddess x her devoted second male lead. The heroine mistakes the moon for a substitute.

My Blind Date's Younger Brother Is So Handsome: A mature woman x a sweet younger man. She ends up with her blind date's younger brother.

The Constable's Child Bride: A farming story. A Li marries three times before finally marrying the right person.

Transported to a Xianxia World and Happily Ever After with My Nemesis: After years of being a potted plant, the Divine Lord gives an order. She never obeys, especially when it's her nemesis.

Theme: To take something, you must first give something.