Winning Your Heart (Reborn)

Thank you, my lovely readers, for staying with me all the way! My new novel next door, Spoiled Maid, Fierce and Proud, is now underway. Please add it to your collection, I’m begging you! Mwah~

[Arrogant, Unlucky Princess x Upright, Lucky Top Scorer]

Su Peihan, the newly crowned third-place graduate, is as handsome as he is refined, and every prominent family in the capital considers him the perfect husband for their daughter.

Emperor Jianzhang, who treasures his daughter above all else, makes a bold move and betroths the top scorer to Princess Qionghua as her consort.

The people of the capital are devastated.

After all, Princess Qionghua is not only spoiled and domineering, but also hopelessly devoted to Shen You, the Duke of Ying's illegitimate son.

Everyone waits eagerly, convinced that the pair will become bitter enemies within three months, and divorce within a year.

But as the days pass, instead of hearing that they have fallen out, people hear that the two are inseparable and have gone boating together by the lake...

*

Reborn overnight, Song Qingqing returns to the age of sixteen.

The good news is that she has been reborn. The bad news is that she has become a walking jinx.

To escape the fate of being poisoned to death in her previous life, she goes along with her father's arrangements and becomes a couple in name only with the top scorer.

She never expected that this seemingly frail scholar would actually be blessed with the luck of a koi fish.

After racking her brains, Song Qingqing finally discovers that whenever she can get her good-natured, lucky husband to scold her, her luck turns around.

So from then on, she stays right in front of Su Peihan.

Today, she strokes her husband's hand, and his brows furrow. Tomorrow, she kisses his cheek, and his fists clench in silence.

Just as Su Peihan is about to lose his temper and her luck is about to turn, the treacherous husband and ungrateful younger brother from her previous life both show up.

*

When Su Peihan was young, a Daoist priest once predicted that he would not live past the age of twenty-five.

He had resolved to spend his life alone, but the Emperor's decree of marriage ruined his plans.

Fortunately, Princess Qionghua already has someone in her heart, so they can treat each other with courtesy and respect.

Yet at some point, the princess begins provoking him in front of everyone.

At first, he does his best to avoid her. But the more he dodges her, the more relentlessly she pursues him.

Until one day, the princess's beloved comes to visit. Hiding behind a rockery, Su Peihan sees her smiling at another man, and can no longer contain his jealousy.

“If he can have you, why can't I?”

Reading Guide:

1. This is a fictional setting with plenty of original worldbuilding.

2. The leads are each other's only partners in this life. One-on-one sweet romance.

--- Coming Soon Next Door: Spoiled Maid, Fierce and Proud ---

Lu Huai, the legitimate son of the Duke's household, is as graceful as an orchid and kindhearted to a fault. On his first day back at the estate, he rescues a maid in the Cheng Garden and keeps her by his side as his personal attendant.

The maid is usually quiet, but her exposed arms are always marked with fresh injuries. Seeing how fragile she is, Lu Huai pities her harsh lot in life. He gives her medicine and even protects her in front of everyone.

Everyone says the maid will eventually rise to a higher station, until news arrives that Lu Huai is to marry the Prime Minister's daughter.

Unexpectedly, the very next day Lu Huai disappears in the outskirts of the city. The capital sends out search parties, but none can find him.

Half a month later, Lu Huai appears at the main entrance of the Duke's residence. He is no longer the refined young master he once was. His eyes are utterly lifeless, and the maid who disappeared with him is nowhere to be seen.

*

Ning Yu is the daughter of a disgraced official. She entered the Imperial Music Bureau at the age of six. As soon as she came of age, she was sent to serve in the Duke's household.

The servants bully and humiliate her, pointing at her and cursing her as a born temptress who thinks she can climb the social ladder with her pretty face.

Ning Yu stays silent, quietly enduring their cruelty.

One day, rain pours down in sheets.

She kneels on the flagstones in a corner of Cheng Garden when an oil-paper umbrella suddenly appears above her.

*

Ning Yu thought she had long since grown accustomed to the world's warmth and coldness, but in that moment she glimpses a ray of light.

Her forbidden desire grows like weeds. She schemes to win Lu Huai's affection, and just as he grows ever gentler with her, the news of his engagement douses her like a bucket of cold water.

So, taking advantage of an outing to the countryside, she drugs Lu Huai unconscious.

In a bamboo hut, Ning Yu hooks a finger into his sash. One moment, she leans close to his ear and softly calls him “husband”; the next, she laces her fingers with his and declares possessively, “You're mine!”

Lu Huai drifts in and out of consciousness. When he finally wakes, only a lingering fragrance remains in the bamboo hut, and she is nowhere to be found.

Theme: Only sincerity can be repaid with sincerity