The Frail Childhood Friend Is a Black Lotus

Coming soon: She Turned the Tables After Dumping the Young Marquis. Please add it to your collection!

Synopsis at the very end!

Synopsis:

[Seemingly docile but actually unhinged heroine x scheming, straightforward hero]

Before she turned fourteen, Yan Ning had her adopted sister to protect her, and life was fairly peaceful.

But there were always people looking for trouble. She acted meek, obedient, and humble. Once they were somewhere private, she'd smile and clamp a hand around their throat. "Remember, trouble starts with loose lips. If you do it again..."

"I'll tear your mouth apart."

Xie Heming saw it all.

He emerged slowly from behind a tree. "You're quite the lunatic."

Xie Heming came from a prestigious family. His looks and bearing were impeccable, and he was gentle with people, without a trace of arrogance or extravagance.

The young ladies of every household admired him in secret, praising him as the model of an aristocrat.

But Yan Ning had seen him being shamelessly persistent and grinning like a fool. Looking at the elegant gentleman in the distance, she scoffed, "What a hypocrite."

Then a rumor spread that she brought bad luck, and she was thrown into a pond to drown.

When she escaped death and returned, all she found was an empty house.

After learning where her adopted sister was, she looked forward to their reunion. But she still couldn't shake Xie Heming, who pursued her more relentlessly than ever.

He was now a nobleman of the capital, while she was a commoner. They shouldn't be so entangled.

But as the truth came to light, she framed him with a false accusation to escape her predicament.

The next time she saw him was in the back courtyard of the Xie residence.

Yan Ning had never seen him so disheveled:

His black hair was unbound, and he crouched barefoot in a corner, an iron chain locked around his ankle.

At the sound, the young man lifted his eyes, which seemed to glisten with tears, and murmured, "You're here."

Only then did she realize how helpless he was behind that glamorous facade.

Yan Ning tightened her grip on the dagger in her hand, resisting the urge to go out and start chopping people up.

*

Xie Heming was cherished by his family. Everyone said his future was limitless, so he became the person everyone wanted him to be.

Only Yan Ning pushed him away, calling him a pretentious fraud.

So he shed his burdens and broke free of the shackles of his status as a nobleman's son, letting himself be himself around her.

But she still ignored him, and eventually vanished without a trace.

Everyone said she was dead.

After waiting year upon year, his subordinate sent word that an old acquaintance might have returned.

He immediately blocked her path, putting on a calm front as he said, "It's been a long time, Huo Qiniang."

He knew she was cold by nature and would do anything for revenge.

He wanted to become the person who tied her to this world, and he wanted to wait for her to turn back to him.

In the end, she did.

His long-restrained feelings burst forth, and he asked her to marry him.

The young lady lounged lazily against the couch and said, "Kneel down and beg me."

P.S.:

1. The dynasty and place names are fictional. It's all fictional, so don't overthink the historical details!

2. A tiny bit of mystery and a tiny bit of ensemble cast.

3. The heroine is ruthless enough to go after even herself.

4. A reunion after a long separation + unrequited love becoming mutual.

5. The main plot is revenge, but the hero's position never wavers.

Coming-soon story starts here

She Turned the Tables After Dumping the Young Marquis

[Beautiful, strong, tragic daughter of the Grand Tutor's household x devoted, love-struck son of the Marquis's household]

Chu Zhaoran was the apple of the Grand Tutor's eye, adored by the emperor and doted on by the empress dowager. The moment she was born, she was betrothed to Shen Yunqi, the most favored legitimate son of the marquis's household.

It was a match made in heaven, until disaster struck.

When Chu Zhaoran was five, she fell from a horse and was injured, then kidnapped. Thirteen years passed, and she had become a famous courtesan in Luzhou.

By a twist of fate, she met Shen Yunqi again.

The young man was handsome and dashing. She deliberately approached him and flirted with him, making Shen Yunqi spend a fortune on her.

They reveled in song and wine night after night aboard a pleasure boat, living like immortals.

But their good times didn't last. A great fire burned everything to the ground.

*

Shen Yunqi had always known he had a fiancée. When he was young, he heard she had been injured and had no choice but to leave the capital to recover. He even sent people with gifts to visit her, but they were turned away at the door.

Thirteen years passed in the blink of an eye. The marquis's household was preparing their wedding, but on the eve of the formal proposal, he ran away.

He ran to Luzhou, where he met a woman for whom he gladly bowed his head.

He thought they would go on living like that forever, until the fire consumed everything, leaving no trace of her remains.

The marquis's guards found him and took him back to the capital, where he married Chu Zhaoran.

On their wedding night, he lifted her veil and froze.

The face he'd seen night after night appeared before him once again. In a daze, he asked, "Who are you?"

Chu Zhaoran smiled faintly. "You married me, yet you don't know who I am? Could it be that your heart still belongs to someone else?"

*

Shen Yunqi thought they would always treat each other with polite respect. But one night, after a cup of wine, he woke up the next morning with a sore waist and abdomen. He knew the feeling all too well.

Especially when he saw Chu Zhaoran smiling at him from her dressing table, he raised a trembling hand. "You... What did you do to me?"

"Shh, husband, there's no need to be so formal. Anything we do as husband and wife is only natural."

*

Shen Yunqi thought all respectable young ladies were gentle and reserved, but Chu Zhaoran was nothing like that.

One night, he woke up in the middle of it and saw what the woman on top of him was doing. His eyes went wide with terror.

Chu Zhaoran's movements were far too practiced, and his body was responding to her all the same.

He was so ashamed he could die. He grabbed her wandering hand. "You... shameless!"

Her answer was to take even more from him.

Shen Yunqi was in agony. He resented himself for being unable to resist temptation, and cursed himself for failing to remain faithful to the woman he'd once known.

Theme: Women finding their sense of self-worth amid adversity.