Synopsis
Si Luyao was the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Nanyang’s household. Her family was framed and destroyed overnight, her father died a violent death, and her elder brother disappeared without a trace.
To protect her family, Si Luyao broke free from the protection of the men who had sheltered her in the past and resolutely threw herself into the Crown Prince’s arms. She never expected him to see through her scheme. From then on, Li Yancheng imprisoned her in a magnificent palace.
*
As rebel forces entered the palace, Si Luyao remembered how she had schemed against the new emperor and ran frantically through the grounds.
But the palace gates were strewn with corpses, and rivers of blood flowed across the ground.
She fled in panic, tripped over a dead body, and fell.
She struggled to her feet, never expecting that,
in the blink of an eye, the palace gates would swing open and the sound of hooves would thunder through them.
Li Yancheng rode in, clad in gleaming silver armor. His swordlike brows and starry eyes framed a striking, handsome face, and he cut a dashing figure on horseback.
When he drew near, the man dismounted and strode toward her.
His bloodstained sword pressed against her slender chin, forcing her to look up.
Li Yancheng watched her with a cruel smile. Like a vicious wolf that had found its favorite prey, his gaze was openly possessive and predatory.
“I told you that day: if you betrayed me, then the day I succeeded would be the day you kept company with the hounds.”
Li Yancheng had clawed his way out of a sea of corpses to claim victory. He was the new emperor of the Central Plains.
The first thing he did after taking the Central Plains was search for the woman who had set his heart ablaze, then betrayed him to become his brother’s military adviser.
The once-glorious palace was now awash in blood.
He got his wish: Si Luyao, once known as “the most beautiful woman in the Central Plains,” had fallen into disarray before him.
Thousands of troops awaited his command to slaughter the entire palace. She would be the first trophy of Li Yancheng’s reign.
Looking at the most beautiful woman in the land, who had betrayed her lord, Li Yancheng sneered.
“Those without mercy deserve to sink into the boundless depths of hell and never rise again!”
[Reader’s Guide]
This is a short work, written as a trial run for a future novel about taking what you want by force. It only covers the early story of the male and female leads. Please don’t read if that bothers you!
Next novel: My Husband Is Cold and Indifferent
Shen Jiaojiao had skin as fair as jade and extraordinary beauty, yet she was a country girl who had never known the love of her birth parents.
She had thought she would have no choice but to find a man in the countryside and spend her life with him. Then scandal erupted around the bride-to-be of the Hedong Pei clan, and an imperial edict summoned Shen Jiaojiao back to the capital.
As the future head of the Hedong Pei clan, Pei Ju had been raised from childhood to assume power. He carried himself with an air of refined nobility and had a handsome, elegant face. He was also reserved and free of worldly desires, devoted only to his family’s prosperity.
He should have married a virtuous woman renowned beyond the family and capable of managing a household. But just as he was about to take a bride, scandal about her came to light, revealing that the woman described in the letter was not the woman he knew.
The realm had only just fallen into chaos, and the imperial family had lost its grip on power.
Emperor Mingyang, desperate to secure his position, immediately sent people to Hedong. He secretly struck a deal with the current head of the Pei family, sending a woman who had grown up in the countryside and lived away from the capital since childhood to Pei Ju.
The wedding was a grand and splendid affair, but it was accompanied by all sorts of rumors. Pei Ju was naturally deeply displeased with his new bride.
Night after night, she pressed close to him, hoping to share his bed. He always turned her away.
Until one day, the young man from the countryside who had been so close to her came to visit. Pei Ju watched her behave toward him the way she had toward Pei Ju himself, then happily pass him by and rush into the other man’s arms, telling him how much she had missed him. That was when Pei Ju finally lost his mind.
Beneath a dark night where the clouds blotted out the moon, Pei Ju held her entirely in his power. Eyes red, he stared into hers and spoke each word with shame-inducing clarity.
“Shen Jiaojiao, you are my wife, and the person who will share my grave a hundred years from now. Now that you’re so intimate with another man, tell me, how should I punish you?”
My Cousin Won’t Be a Kept Woman
A story about someone who ends up trapped in a cage herself
Song Weilan refused to become a concubine and sacrifice herself for her family, so she hurried to find a way out.
She heard that Wang Xun, a young lord of the Wang clan who was in the area to investigate a case, had been frequenting the place for some time. He was also her cousin, who had rescued her from danger two years earlier. Song Weilan thought he might be the only one who could help her.
But Wang Xun was one person in public and another in private.
When she went to him in helpless appeal, she fell straight into the trap he had prepared just for her.
After a night of passion, as they tossed and turned beneath the covers, Wang Xun drew her into his very bones.
His long, pale hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her, forcing her to sit on his lap.
In the hazy candlelight, the man raised an eyebrow and spoke softly.
“Cousin, with a face like yours, it would be a pity to become a concubine. Why not come with me? I’ll give you wealth and honor, and promise you’ll never be under anyone’s thumb again.”
Song Weilan wasn’t stupid. Even as a concubine, she would be marrying far above her station if she married into a powerful clan like the Langya Wang family.
He promised her wealth and honor, and said no one in his household would be able to control her. How could he possibly intend to bring her into his clan? He only wanted her to be his kept woman.
She had never wanted to be a concubine, let alone a kept woman.
She objected sternly, only for him to turn the tables on her.
“Cousin, you’re so wilful. Have you considered what your father would do if he found out what happened between us tonight?”
In an instant, Song Weilan’s eyes turned red.
Later, the noble clans chose a wife for their future head and selected the second legitimate daughter of the Duke of Yuanning. When Song Weilan heard, she immediately decided to cut off their fleeting relationship, then teased him by acting as if she might change her mind.
In the thick darkness of night, she pressed a delicate hand against the man’s chest and spoke seductively.
“Cousin, what a clever plan. You want power and beauty. But do you know that greed can bring a snake down on you? I have proof that you’re all show on the outside and rotten within.”
“Cousin, tell me: if this evidence gets out, will you still be able to keep your place as the future head of your clan?”
That night, Wang Xun did not toy with her as he usually did. Instead, his long hand clasped around her slender neck, and his voice turned bewitching.
“Cousin, you know I have ambitions.”
“I want power, and I want you too!”
Theme: Resilience and lofty aspirations
