An Accidental Visit to the Imperial Household

Chi Xuyuan had been married for only four years when she was locked away in a country house for two of them.

She and Chang Xuan had once been a respectful couple, until he became madly obsessed with another woman and even considered keeping his wife while taking another.

Chi Xuyuan fought back, but all she got for it was house arrest.

He told the outside world that she needed peace and quiet while recovering from an illness. He wouldn't let her leave, nor would he let anyone visit her.

Chi Xuyuan knew exactly what Chang Xuan was afraid of.

He was afraid she'd really leave in a fit of anger, and afraid that the men who had once desired her would come after her.

With nothing to do, she spent her days playing the zither and drinking. But one day, she started noticing little trinkets on her table.

Sometimes it was a cricket woven from grass, sometimes a vivid peach blossom.

She soon discovered where they came from.

A young man who always hid in a corner, his head bowed so low as he knelt to answer questions that she could only see the crown of his head.

"Who told you to give me these gifts?"

"...It was me, Madam."

"Why?"

"...I can't say, Madam," the young man replied, his voice trembling.

It was only much later that Chi Xuyuan learned he hadn't been afraid at all. He had been struggling to contain his excitement.

Note: The heroine only develops feelings for the male lead after ending her marriage with her former husband =)

[Visit the author's page for the upcoming romance novel, The Saintess Everyone Covets]

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The Sacred Kingdom was destroyed, and Semien, its saintess, was imprisoned in the imperial palace.

Once a gilded cage bird who had lost her homeland, she lived a life of precarious fear in the palace.

The timid Semien suddenly discovered that she had a strange illness: scales had begun to grow on her arms.

Afraid that she would be discovered and killed as a monster, she grew even more afraid of being around people. She hid away in the inner palace and refused to see anyone, yet she couldn't escape the empire's decision to marry the saintess off.

As one marriage candidate after another appeared, Semien grew more and more anxious.

To keep her strange illness a secret, she could only feign madness and stupidity to drive off the men who wanted to marry her.

But things didn't go as she hoped.

Despairing, Semien decided to drown herself rather than die as a witch at the stake.

Beneath the moonlight, she plunged into the icy lake, only for a sticky sensation to wrap unexpectedly around her waist.

The real monster spoke: "If you're going to die, why not offer yourself to me instead?"

Semien: "Will that save me?"

"Of course. Everything will go as you wish."

When Semien awoke, soaking wet on the grass, she discovered that her strange illness really was gone. That night seemed like a dream.

At a banquet, Semien wavered when the crown prince proposed to her. Just as she was about to reach out, someone suddenly clasped her hand tightly.

The monster, wearing a beautiful human guise, gazed at her fervently. "My saintess, have you forgotten that you already gave yourself to a monster at the bottom of a lake?"

Semien prayed beneath the statue of a god that the truth wouldn't come out, but gradually felt something cold and sticky winding its way up from her calf.

The beautiful monster leaned close to her. "It's too late to be afraid now."

Semien trembled. "I really will love you. Please don't kill me."

The monster laughed. "You adorable little liar."

Theme: Love yourself before you love someone else