Blurb:
Shen Lan arrived in the capital in dire straits, carrying a shameful burden, to find her fiancé.
Her fiancé had since been made Marquis of Yongping, but back then he had been an unknown young man.
She had once been the noble daughter of a prince's estate. Now her whole family had been burned to death, leaving her the sole survivor.
She asked Lou Boxi whether their engagement still stood.
Lou Boxi instead asked if she had forgotten how cruelly the prince's estate had called off their engagement three years ago.
In the end, Lou Boxi acknowledged their engagement, but on the condition that they marry in secret and live in a separate residence. The servants all assumed she was his mistress.
No status. No future.
The day after their wedding, she received a stack of booklets. She was expected to learn the shameless tricks of a courtesan and dance the Rainbow Skirt Dance to please him.
She endured the humiliation and stayed alive only to find the person who had killed her whole family.
**
At last, the case in which the prince's estate had been framed was overturned.
Shen Lan planned to change her name and disappear forever, so she would never again have to endure humiliation and play such a shameless game.
The moment the young marquis, always so cold and cutting, learned she was going to slip away, his eyes reddened for the first time.
He grabbed her hand and told her not to go.
He regretted it.
He had no idea how to make amends for all the pain she had suffered over the past year and more.
Reader's guide:
One-on-one romance, happy ending
The heroine suffers in the first half; the hero suffers in the second half
The hero is obsessive and turns dark, but deeply loves the heroine
Forthcoming
After I Found a Down-and-Out Crown Prince, He Lost His Memory
Liao Mingyue was raised from childhood as a thin horse, trained in the shameless arts of serving others. Unable to bear the beatings any longer, she escaped and hid in a remote village for three years.
One night, amid torrential rain and raging floods, she met a young man just as destitute as she was.
The young man, Jiang Mubai, had been framed by villains. He was blind, had a crippled leg, and was covered in spots from a slow-acting poison. The villagers thought he had caught an epidemic and wanted to burn him alive, but Liao Mingyue saved him.
She pitied his loneliness and his disability, and admired how, despite having nothing, he still cared about the world. He planned to build waterways, fight epidemics, and benefit the people and the nation. She loved listening to him recite passages from books and speak of his grand ambitions.
They supported each other, and affection blossomed between them.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, his sight returned. He wanted to light a thousand river lanterns and promise her the grand wedding she wished for.
But that very night, she disappeared.
**
They met again in the Eastern Palace.
The young man, Jiang Mubai, turned out to be the crown prince. Now he had returned in a sorry state, washed the former court in blood, and reclaimed power.
The Imperial Medical Academy had used such strong medicines that they cured many of his injuries and ailments, but they also damaged his memory. He forgot his time in that remote village, though fragments flooded his mind whenever he dreamed, leaving him plagued by nightmares and unable to rest.
She, meanwhile, had been captured and brought back.
Still treated as a thin horse, she was presented to the crown prince.
Everything proceeded quietly according to her clan's plan. But when the crown prince saw her eyes, which seemed both resentful and plaintive, they suddenly overlapped with those fragments in his mind.
"Be a good stand-in. I won't mistreat you."
That was the first thing he said when they met again.
She knelt on the ground and looked up at the now-noble crown prince. She swallowed the words "Brother Mubai" and replaced them with a respectful bow and formal address.
"Yes, Your Highness."
**
Countless eyes were fixed on the position of crown princess, yet the person the crown prince favored most was a thin horse who had been presented to him.
The many women coveting the crown princess's position used every means they could to ostracize, torment, and abuse her.
Unable to endure the humiliation, she finally decided to escape.
But at that very moment, the crown prince's true memories returned.
But...
It was too late.
Her heart had turned to stone. No matter how desperately the crown prince begged, she refused to turn back.
Reader's guide:
The crown prince suffers a dramatic romantic reckoning
White-moonlight stand-in trope
Old-school melodrama, angst first, love later
One-on-one romance, happy ending
Theme: Stay true to your original aspirations, and you will reach the end.
The Beautiful Maid's Plight
A Thousand Ways for a Cannon Fodder to Die [Western Fantasy]
How to Make 100 Million in a Western Fantasy Game
Lilith's Tenth Loop [Western Fantasy]
The Demon King Says He’s Pretty Miserable [Western Fantasy]
How can such a man exist? Must cross them all
I feel like I missed a lot of plot in the middle, hahaha
This male protagonist should be lost, right?
This man is so annoying... He even gave me physical nausea. I don't believe this can heal him.
"Second My Men" is a big thorn in the side of the author~ I accept it
He can't stand it when the hero's mother calls him a concubine. He doesn't even go to the outside room himself. He's a bitch.
I actually finished reading it ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~
Oh my god, we all like the other person in our memories. The person we used to think of as a child is already dead.
The emperor turned out to be the elder brother!!! I thought it was my father's generation... I also wondered if the old emperor had pedophilia hahahaha
The male protagonist has such a poisonous tongue. . .