Plucking Cherry Blossoms

Su Ying came to the Pei family with her mother, and from then on she had a stepbrother: the world-renowned Pei Ji. He stood high above everyone, dignified and aloof, like snow on a mountaintop and a breeze beneath the pines. She knew her place was lowly and had always looked up to him. It wasn't until later, when she saw him speaking gently and patiently comforting his younger sister through a curtain, that Su Ying realized Pei Ji wasn't always cold and distant. His tenderness was so deeply alluring. She longed to be his little sister, carefully accommodating him, serving him tea and water, and dressing herself to suit his tastes. Pei Ji treated her much better. Sometimes he even tacitly allowed her to call him big brother. Su Ying fell in love with someone: Pei Ji's friend, a young man who rode and wielded a sword, with eyes and heart only for her. “I'm going to get married, Brother,” Su Ying told Pei Ji softly. She was so happy she didn't notice the shadows in his eyes. On the eve of her wedding, she awoke from a nightmare. The man lying beside her wasn't her fiancé. It was Pei Ji. ◆ That so-called stepsister was cunning, cold-hearted, and full of schemes. Pei Ji had never thought much of her efforts to please him. At first, he ignored her completely, but gradually he grew accustomed to her. Later, when she was about to marry, Pei Ji finally realized that, without him noticing, she had grown into a poisonous thorn in his heart, one he couldn't pull out and couldn't bear to lose. Pei Ji took her by force. Pei Ji never imagined that, through countless nights to come, he would do everything in his power just to win a single glance from her. (Scheming innocent-looking sweetheart x cold, controlling man) (Weibo: @Di Yi Zhi Miao Ya. I'll post updates, bonus content, and random thoughts.) 1. The leads are no longer siblings when they meet again. 2. The heroine is very alluring, and there is an eight-year age gap. 3. A forced-love rivalry and a remorse arc. Written to indulge my own tastes. Next novel, How to Humiliate a Cold-Blooded Minister, complete: Wang Shiliu loved him. Pei Shu never took it to heart. She was low-born, crude, and ignorant, and they stood on opposing sides. So even when she betrayed her father and brothers for him, and nearly lost her life, he still rejected her mercilessly in front of everyone. But she loved him so much that she followed him without a name or status. In the end, Pei Shu couldn't resist temptation. What shouldn't have happened had already happened. Though she was unscrupulous and contemptible, he was willing to take responsibility and marry her. So when she firmly refused him, Pei Shu was surprised and confused. He thought she was just throwing a tantrum. He could give her another chance. But she gave him no chance. Right in front of him, she jumped off a cliff, leaving no body behind. Pei Shu thought the countless nights he spent searching for her were torture. But he was wrong. The worst torture came when he finally found her, only to see another man by her side, a man who looked so much like him. She had never loved him. In this game, he was nothing but a laughable stand-in. ◆ Chasing Pei Shu was an exercise in humiliation, but Wang Shiliu always believed that as long as he still had that exact same face, she could overlook anything. But later, Pei Shu said he wanted to marry her. Wang Shiliu finally realized that no one could replace the man in her heart. Not even Pei Shu. She didn't want him anymore. ◆ The new Chief Minister, Pei Shu, was known for his ascetic ways and disinterest in women. No one knew that he kept a woman locked away in his private residence. As night fell, moonlight streamed into the inner room, spilling silver across the floor. Where chains rattled, white gauze covered her eyes. Pei Shu bent over her, her ankle in his hand. “Now that you can't see, can you tell whether it's me or him?” The author's completed novels: The Wife of an Old Friend: A friend's wife is off-limits Scheming for a Wife: Male lead is sexually inexperienced, female lead is not / forced love The Chancellor's Regrets After Their Divorce: Old-fashioned remorse arc The Beauty in His Palm: Forced love and a remorse arc Theme: When the frost clears, the clouds reveal the blossom