Raising a Darling

Lin Ruzhao was the prime minister's daughter. Lovely as a jade doll, she had been raised in pampered comfort, reaching for the stars and moon since childhood, with everything in life going her way. There was just one exception: Lin Ruzhao had terrible luck when it came to marriage. The emperor arranged her marriage to Lu Jin. Lu Jin was known as “Ghost's Lament.” The name said it all: he was so fierce and cruel that even ghosts would weep at the sight of him. Before her wedding, Lin Ruzhao secretly went to see him. He was all bulging muscles, with a hard face and a cold heart, and he smashed a boulder with one punch. Lin Ruzhao fainted from fright. On the day of the wedding, her maids sobbed in the bridal chamber. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought the Lin family was preparing for Lin Ruzhao's funeral. Lin Ruzhao thought she was probably not long for this world. * The Lu family had given generations of loyal service to the throne, leaving Lu Jin as its sole surviving heir. The emperor was concerned that the family line might die out, so he asked Lu Jin what sort of woman he liked. Even if Lu Jin asked for a princess, the emperor could arrange the marriage at once. Recalling the woman from his dreams, Lu Jin made his request. The girl he liked was very fair, as white as snow. She had round eyes like a fawn's, and two dimples when she smiled. She spoke in a sweet, delicate voice and blushed very easily. Just looking at her made him want to tease her. In the end, he added that a woman like that was probably a fairy, and there was no such person in the mortal world. The emperor gave him a strange look. “Actually, there is.” Lu Jin: ? Marriage first, love later; age gap; rugged man × delicate beauty Coming next: She Is So Heartless. Please add it to your reading list: ● Heartless heroine × hero who doesn't realize he's in love | Fallen princess × older powerful minister During the upheaval of the Five Barbarians, after the Han court crossed south, the royal house declined, and only the Wang and Xie families shared power over the realm. When her younger brother was installed as emperor, Li Huaji leapt from being a village woman to a princess of royal blood. For someone like her to marry Xie Yun, the Grand Marshal, was a blessing from three lifetimes of good fortune. That's what everyone said, and Li Huaji believed it too. So even though Xie Yun was cruel and lawless, and had killed the emperor with his own hands, frightening her with endless nightmares; even though she had always admired gentle, virtuous gentlemen and could never love Xie Yun; even though she knew he was cold and faithless, saw her only as a plaything, and did not love her at all, Li Huaji still married Xie Yun without hesitation, all for the sake of her younger brother's throne. * Someone once cursed Xie Yun to spend his life loving someone who would never love him back. Xie Yun dismissed it with scorn. He was a peerless warlord of his age. How could he be caught up in some petty romance? Even with Li Huaji, he had only chosen her for her intelligence and obedience, and because she would not cause trouble or make things difficult for him. She was an excellent choice for a virtuous wife. But love has always crept in quietly, like a gentle rain sinking into the earth. By the time he came to his senses, it had become a vast ocean capable of drowning him. He looked at his young wife, her belly swollen with child, kneeling before him and pleading with the same calmness he had once admired but now hated more than anything. “If you'll let the two of us, siblings, go, I'll give birth to the child for you. I swear I'll never acknowledge him, and he'll never know who his birth mother is. You can still marry a daughter from a prominent family to be his mother. But if you refuse, then we'll both die here. I promise I'll do exactly as I say.” Coming next: The Jie Slave Once Lived Among Men, a childhood-sweethearts story. Please add it to your reading list! And here's another upcoming novel: My Wretched Moonlight. Please add it to your reading list: In the twelfth year of Nanzhao, the Yan army marched south, crossed the Yangtze, and routed the southern forces. That same year, the emperor was captured in a panicked flight, and the Southern Dynasty fell. It was said that when the Northern and Southern Dynasties once faced each other across the river, the Southern court, its power waning, sent a hostage north. Ning Zheng, though born a woman, donned the robes of a nobleman and set off north without a hint of fear. The Southern court never learned the full story. They only knew that, to survive, she had seduced Gu Chengjun and then abandoned him after leading him on. To return south, she had also attached herself to the Northern Crown Prince. They say Gu Chengjun was commanding troops at the border when he heard the news. Enraged, he spat blood, drove his sword into the ground, and swore that if he ever caught her, he would torture her to death. It was also said that Gu Chengjun could never forget how Ning Zheng had betrayed him, and that he had even asked Southern envoys about her. He heard she'd entered the Southern emperor's harem. Did she have his favor? Did she love the Southern emperor? The envoy knelt on the ground, not daring to tell him the truth. Gu Chengjun laughed coldly three times, then led his army south the very next day. Thus, even in their hurried records of history, the Southern Dynasty's scribes did not forget to condemn Ning Zheng: a wicked woman who brought ruin to her country. * After Ning Zheng was presented to the new emperor, everyone assumed she would be tormented to death. But instead, at a palace banquet, they saw Ning Zheng with her ink-black hair and slender waist nestled in the emperor's arms, a finely crafted golden chain locked around her delicate ankle. The emperor fed her wine and food, but she kept her eyes lowered and remained silent. Only when he pinched her chin and made her look at the man who had once been her husband did he whisper in her ear, “Come, tell him whose empress you are now.” Theme: Love requires compromise