(Please don't add this to your list. This is a manuscript submitted for a contract application. I have no writing skills or plot, and it's an ugly practice piece that might become a source of embarrassment. It will probably be an abandoned project with no end in sight. orz)
Blurb:
The Shu family, a wealthy family of generations of zither merchants in Jiangnan, has no male heir to carry on the family legacy in the third year of Tianyuan.
To keep their foundations from crumbling, they have no choice but to adopt a boy from a collateral branch.
Shu Yin is exceptionally bright and is chosen at a glance. From then on, she rises from the mud and becomes the adopted son of the Shu family's main branch.
But what the world does not know is
She is a daughter, too.
The first time she meets Pei Chengji, he is seated in a private room at a zither pavilion, exuding an imposing air of nobility.
Shu Yin is nervous. She knows the man before her has unfathomable connections. For all she knows, he may soon be transferred to a post in another province, then enter the cabinet and become a chancellor. He is not someone she can afford to offend. So she keeps smiling and treats him with the reverence due the King of Heaven.
As her friend says, Pei Chengji is aloof and proud, and even when he smiles, the warmth never reaches his eyes. Shu Yin often finds her warm advances met with cold indifference, but she doesn't mind too much. At least she can exchange a few words with him.
Outside, she is also the young master of a wealthy family, with a beautiful wife and concubines. How many people could help envying her?
Even Pei Chengji's gaze on her seems to carry a deeper meaning.
When the Shu family finally welcomes a grandson, all her years of effort are ruined. Shu Yin grows cold-hearted and wants to leave, but her birth family threatens her into staying to produce an heir.
After weighing her options, Shu Yin decides to leave the father and keep the child.
But the man she chooses is so reserved and shy: he puts in the effort but makes no sound, and he seems strangely familiar?
Theme: Ideals and freedom
A Forbidden Triangle
The Palace Maid's Rise to Power
The Cool and Distant Princess Consort Was Her Cultivation Cauldron in a Past Life
A Dangerous Relationship
Hiding a Beauty in Winter
The Princess Has a New Love (Both Reborn)
The Little Junior Sister Ascended Through Cybernetics
After the Commandery Princess Fell for Someone Else
An Expired Crush