A Season of Quiet Joy

Coming soon: After I Provoked the Mad Young Lord. Please add it to your collection (blurb below this one)

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Shi Qinghuan was born with delicate, beautiful features and treated others with warmth. She was famous throughout Hezhuang County as a beauty. Unfortunately, she was a widow with a daughter.

Men coveted her beauty and came knocking time and again, hoping to take her as a concubine or keep her as a bedchamber maid. She ignored them all, supporting herself and raising her daughter on her own.

One day, while out on a bamboo skiff, she bent down to pick a lotus pod and unexpectedly collided with another boat. She was just about to apologize when she looked up and met a pair of deep-set eyes.

A man stood tall and graceful aboard the little boat, handsome and distinguished. He lowered his eyes and spoke: "I found you."

Shi Qinghuan: "...What?"

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Xiao Lingxu was framed. Someone drugged him in the palace, hoping to bring him down with accusations of debauching the imperial harem and defiling the consorts. He struggled desperately to escape, then stumbled into the abandoned palace in his confusion.

Beneath the cold moonlight, a woman in plain white appeared before him. The drug's effects were overwhelming, and he had no time to think of anything else. He used the young woman's body to rid himself of the poison.

Afterward, he promised to take responsibility for her.

But when he was finally ready to go to the abandoned palace and bring her out, the place was empty.

He saw her again three years later, in Hezhuang, Jiangnan.

Someone was picking lotus flowers from a bamboo skiff, with a well-behaved little girl holding a lotus pod beside her. Xiao Lingxu recognized the woman from that night at once. The adorable little girl had features uncannily like his own.

The woman refused to admit who she was and resisted any contact with him.

So Xiao Lingxu simply bought the house across from hers, became her neighbor, and settled in for the long haul.

He had waited three years. A little longer was nothing.

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Xiao Lingxu went to extraordinary lengths to coax Shi Qinghuan back to the capital, where she moved into Prince Ling's residence. Everyone thought Shi Qinghuan was unworthy of Xiao Lingxu, Prince Ling, and that within six months he would lose interest, cast her aside, and strip her of her title as his princess consort.

Unexpectedly, a year passed, and Xiao Lingxu not only kept Shi Qinghuan in her position as his princess consort, he treated her with endless tenderness and consideration. If she said one thing, he would never contradict her. If she wanted to go east, he would never go west.

Two years, then three, went by, and nothing changed.

The people of the capital were baffled: Was this really the decisive, ruthless Prince Ling they knew?

[Distinguished Prince Ling and resilient lotus picker]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads' firsts, a gentle, everyday sweet romance.

2. The heroine is the palace maid who helped the hero detox in the abandoned palace all those years ago. He has the right person. They are five years apart in age.

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Coming soon: After I Provoked the Mad Young Lord

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Xiao Danyun was the illegitimate daughter of the Vice Minister of Revenue. Her mother died young, and she kept her head down and never overstepped her bounds.

The day before her coming-of-age ceremony, she overheard her stepmother and father discussing how, once she came of age, they would marry her off as the fifth wife of the Duke of Chen, a man over fifty whose previous four wives had all died. They hoped to use her to gain the favor of the ducal household.

Xiao Danyun sat quietly through the night and came to a decision. Rather than be used as a pawn, she would take a chance and fight for a better future for herself.

She learned about the eligible young men of the capital's noble households and finally chose the second son of the Chancellor as her target. He was well-read, kind-hearted, and from a family with strict values. If she became intimate with him, he would surely come to ask for her hand.

But after the peony banquet, the person who arrived in the side chamber was not the second young master.

For some reason, the cup of wine meant for him had ended up in the hands of Chu Muyuan, heir to the Prince of Huai'an.

After their reckless encounter, Chu Muyuan clamped a hand around her throat. "You dared to scheme against me?"

Xiao Danyun shook her head desperately. "I didn't! I swear! You weren't the one I meant to scheme against!"

To her surprise, Chu Muyuan changed tack. "What? You think this heir isn't good enough for you?"

Xiao Danyun: "...What? Help!"

Chu Muyuan was famous throughout the capital as a madman. Rumor had it that he took charge of the prisons just to indulge his twisted bloodlust. He personally wielded the executioner's blade, laughing in a chilling, terrifying way as he sent prisoners to their deaths. Even dogs passing by were too scared to bark at him.

Xiao Danyun thought she was doomed. She spent two days on tenterhooks, only to hear that Chu Muyuan had come to ask for her hand.

After they married, Chu Muyuan slept in his study every night except their wedding night, and was always out early and home late.

Xiao Danyun spent several days trembling with fear, but eventually relaxed.

The only thing that troubled her was the old princess consort's constant urging to continue the family line.

One day, she mustered up the courage to tug at Chu Muyuan's sleeve. "Could you come back early today, Your Lordship? There may be a thunderstorm tonight, and I'm a little afraid."

Chu Muyuan stared at her with wolfish eyes for a moment, then replied, "All right."

That night, thunder roared and rain poured down.

In their room, amid the warmth and fragrance of the bed curtains, Xiao Danyun pleaded for mercy through tear-blurred eyes.

Chu Muyuan paid her no heed.

After Chu Muyuan went to the Xiao family to ask for her hand, everyone in the capital waited to see what fate awaited Xiao Danyun as the wife of a madman: would she become a haggard wreck, or be reduced to something barely human?

To their surprise, the next time they saw her, she was radiant, dressed in fine silks and glittering jewels, with a slight swell to her belly and joy written all over her face.

And the madman Chu Muyuan, when she called him "husband," obediently reached out to support her.

· One-on-one romance, both leads' firsts

· The leads are imperfect people

· A romance-focused sweet story, with the plot in service of the relationship

Theme: Be strong and unyielding, self-reliant and brave.