The Female Secretary Refuses to Be Ruled by Love

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Contest entry: In her previous life, the heroine was falsely accused and died. Reborn as only a fourth-rank female official, she seizes every opportunity to work hard and change her predetermined fate. Through her own abilities, she rises to become a first-rank female official, turning her life around and making a name for herself throughout the land.

Su Wenxi, a fourth-rank female minister, is calm and restrained, composed and dignified, a model of a female official. But no one knows that she has a secret crush on Prince Lin Xiao Yujun, and takes her fangirl devotion to the extreme.

She goes to great lengths to praise Xiao Yujun around the palace. Even the brocade she sends him is deliberately patterned to please him, and she perfects every design in the hope of earning a few words of praise from the man she loves.

Yet in the end, Xiao Yujun frames her for privately hoarding property. In the midst of a blizzard, she is dragged off in a wretched state to Yunyang Prison, where she dies unjustly behind bars.

*

After living again, Su Wenxi binds herself to the Cloud Brocade System. She resolves to mend her ways, shut her heart to love, and avoid trouble by going to Jiangning, where she plans to develop cloud brocade, a craft not yet known in this dynasty.

She never expected two young noblemen to arrive over the Jiangning corruption case: Xiao Lingci, the third prince, a dissolute idler who never applies himself, and Xiao Yujun. To stay alive, Su Wenxi tries every possible way to avoid Xiao Yujun, only to find that, unlike before, he pursues her instead.

Even worse, Xiao Lingci, who is always getting himself drunk and putting on airs of elegance with his fan, somehow takes an interest in her too. The colder Su Wenxi acts, the more persistently he clings to her. He keeps calling her "Lord Su" in an almost intimate tone, and often refers to himself as a "little woman," making her heart race.

*

One day, Su Wenxi mischievously decides to get back at him. She deliberately pitches her voice to imitate Xiao Lingci, lifts his chin, and calls him "my lady." With a clatter, his fan slips from his hand and falls to the ground. The skin behind his ears and down his neck quietly turns red.

Seeing this, Su Wenxi assumes he is finally embarrassed. She laughs to herself, certain she has found the perfect way to deal with his shameless antics. But as she keeps at it, Xiao Lingci seems to start taking her seriously.

*

The second male lead gets his comeuppance, but the broken relationship will not be mended.

The setting is fictional. The textile-related details are not professionally researched, so please be understanding.

Both leads are each other's one and only. Happy ending.

Message: Let your passion shine in the field you love.