Once the Crown Prince's Beloved

~Please add my other novel, Sudden Stop in the Spring Rain, to your reading list. Its blurb is at the very bottom ↓

Blurb for This Novel

After her father meets with disaster and her mother is bedridden, Pei Yutao, the young heiress of the Peach Blossom Pavilion restaurant, is pressured into marriage by the clan leader and a single thug from her clan.

Unwilling to let the restaurant change hands, Pei Yutao points at the fool sitting outside and says, "I'd rather marry a fool than give myself to you."

The crown prince of the dynasty, Gong Yelin, is neither loved by his father nor cherished by his mother.

After being ambushed by villains and falling off a cliff, he is swept by the river to Rui'an Town.

When he wakes again, he has lost his memory and become a fool.

Tricked with a bowl of plain noodles, the fool becomes the Pei family's live-in son-in-law.

Pei Yutao gives him a new name: Pei Ning.

When his memories return, Gong Yelin covets Pei Yutao's love and wants to hide his identity and remain her live-in son-in-law.

Gong Yelin's personal guard finds Pei Yutao and tells her that the man who lies beside her night after night is the crown prince, and his world has never belonged here.

Pei Yutao nods, saying she is willing to let him go.

That night, Pei Yutao gets Gong Yelin drunk for the first time. Their bodies entwine amid fragrant warmth, with phoenix pillows and embroidered curtains around them.

The next day, Pei Yutao turns cold and denies him. "Without you, I can find another live-in son-in-law. I'll just consider Ning dead."

-

The Eastern Palace rejoices: the crown prince, missing for many days, has finally returned safely.

But even the finest delicacies taste like nothing to Gong Yelin.

Only then does he realize that someone has long since taken up residence in his heart.

The palace holds a banquet for the newly appointed top scholar. Everyone says his betrothed is beautiful, but it's a pity she runs a restaurant and is hardly respectable.

Watching the two of them act like an inseparable couple, Gong Yelin downs one cup of wine after another and grits his teeth. "Why do I think a woman who runs a restaurant is wonderful?"

They say Gong Yelin disregarded his status as crown prince and stole a subject's wife in broad daylight.

Gong Yelin looks at the increasingly captivating woman. "Have you looked carefully at who I am? You took my innocence and still think you can run away?"

Pei Yutao wraps her slender arms around him and speaks in a bewitching voice. "Ning."

Reader's Guide:

1. A beautiful, tragic, sharp-minded crown prince who hides a dark side x a gentle, clear-eyed young cook

2. At first, the male lead has lost his memory and is a silly, innocent little rabbit. He only returns to his true personality after regaining his mind in the middle and later parts.

3. One-on-one romance in body and heart, both leads sexually inexperienced, happy ending

4. Set in an imaginary world, with extensive original worldbuilding and no particular dynasty as a reference

This blurb was edited on April 6, 2023, and a screenshot has been archived.

Sudden Stop in the Spring Rain

Before she properly meets Xie Huaiyi, Mai Li thinks he is just a rich second-generation heir who gathers a crowd of friends and is always fooled into playing the sucker.

He is also someone she, a girl from a poor family, could never get close to.

Then, after the college entrance exams, a female classmate deliberately throws a cup of coffee at Xie Huaiyi in a karaoke room.

Right in front of her, he takes off his designer shirt, worth tens of thousands, and throws it into the trash.

A few boys laugh and tease him, saying that's how generous rich kids are.

Mai Li happens to see this while coming in to clean. She puts down her rag and asks thoughtfully, "Do you have so much money you can just throw it away?"

Xie Huaiyi looks at her in surprise. "...Huh?"

She looks at the handsome, bewildered face of the boy under the dim lights and takes a step forward.

"Could you buy me a cup of coffee?"

"I've never had coffee before."

Xie Huaiyi is baffled and is about to refuse, but Mai Li's eyes are unusually earnest.

The room's garish spinning lights fall across her fair face. His heart suddenly skips a beat, and he answers without thinking, "Sure."

After they finish their coffee, Mai Li turns to him and asks, "Then do you know how to check into a hotel?"

"What?" Xie Huaiyi furrows his brow.

"I've never been to a hotel either." Mai Li undoes the collar of her shirt, revealing her snowy-white skin, and stares straight at him. "Would you take me?"

Xie Huaiyi understands her hint.

*

Before they meet, Xie Huaiyi has already heard of Mai Li. They say she's a dull top student who looks down on everyone, beautiful but strange-tempered.

But after getting to know her, Xie Huaiyi discovers that she isn't dull at all. In some ways, she's quite fiery.

It's just that she loves money so much that everything else comes second.

But that's fine. Xie Huaiyi has plenty of money.

He showers Mai Li with cash, gives her luxury goods, and buys her the finest instruments, all so he can invite her out on weekends and spend the night with her in a hotel penthouse until dawn.

His friends tease him for being driven by lust. Even Xie Huaiyi himself thinks they are attracted to each other purely physically.

Until after one performance, Mai Li comes down from the stage and bats away his outstretched hand. "Let's break up."

Xie Huaiyi freezes. "...Why?"

"I don't need money anymore," Mai Li says coldly. "You're no longer useful to me."

Something in Xie Huaiyi's heart suddenly caves in.

*

Once she has some savings, Mai Li thinks she can live the life she dreamed of when she was young.

But she always feels that something is missing.

Irritated, she returns to her old city to take a break and teach children, hoping to relax and clear her mind.

When she looks up, she sees that the person picking up the children is her ex-boyfriend, whom she hasn't seen in years.

Theme: Never give up on the person you love.