A Lifetime as a Minister

This novel will enter a paid chapter period on Tuesday, August 6. The paid chapters start at Chapter 23, so please don't buy them again if you've already read them. Thank you for your support so far, and I hope you'll continue to support me! Completed novel: After I Betrayed My Nemesis Blurb: In a storybook, a wealthy man chooses a live-in son-in-law for his only daughter. But then both father and daughter die, leaving behind only a young child. The son-in-law takes control of the family fortune, brings back the woman he loves and their two children, and lives happily ever after. When the storybook world becomes reality, Beijiang Zhao finds herself, unfortunately, as that young child. Fortunately, her identity is no ordinary one: she is a descendant of the King of Beijiang, ruler of the Four Regions. But the cruelest part is that she is a woman. To reclaim her family estate, she decides to seek an ally and chooses Xicheng, the most powerful force around. So she dresses as a woman and plays the part of a bewitching beauty. When everything is settled, she fakes her death and slips away, returning to Beijiang to live as a carefree prince. Rumor has it that Xicheng Ling, King of Xicheng, is ruthless and has no interest in women. Yet one day, he suddenly goes mad searching for a woman, even seeking out immortals and miracle cures. He is utterly devoted. Beijiang Zhao: Oh. She keeps her secret identity even more tightly under wraps. But then a coup breaks out, and Xicheng Ling points his sword at Beijiang Zhao, seated on the throne. His gaze roams boldly over the delicate body beneath the royal robes. "Beijiang Zhao, how dare you deceive me twice?" Beijiang Zhao is helpless, too. When they were young, they spent a year as classmates at the Four Regions Academy, and were mortal enemies to boot. Who could have guessed that years later, it would be him again? The King of Xicheng has abducted someone, and the person he took is the King of Beijiang. They've become a couple. The person in question shakes her head in a panic. She hasn't. She didn't. "So you don't like men? You like women?" Beijiang Zhao: ... Blurb: A secret prophecy says that a woman of the Yuwen family will bring the Great Yan Empire to ruin. From that day on, Yuwen Qing can appear in public only as a man. The year she was born, the Duke of Zhen's mansion won a great victory, but she was left with only her grandmother for company. A long spear and white robes are her destiny. In those innocent, hidden years, there was only one person who burned through her days like a ball of fire: a young man dressed in black. She also protected him all the way from prince to disgraced prince and finally to emperor. Though the road was full of thorns, she never regretted it. "If you become emperor, Yuwen Qing will serve you as a subject for the rest of her life." After the turmoil in the Eastern Palace, Yan Shu lost his mother and his elder brother. When he was on the brink of despair, Yuwen Qing knelt before him and made that promise. She spent the rest of her life keeping it. Coming soon: Jiang Li Blurb: The day an imperial mausoleum is brought to light, the history of a kingdom buried in the past is revealed as well. Jiang Li, the last princess of the Kingdom of Jiang, was born in the cold palace as the pear blossoms came into bloom. No one knew her or recognized her. When the emperor died and the city of Jiang fell, no one even knew there had once been a princess. Yet in the end, she took on the last hope of her people and entered the palace of Chu alone, hoping to win her people one final chance to survive. All for the belief that a fallen kingdom leaves no home, and that she could only exist if her kingdom did. For ten years she struggled to survive, all for the sake of those pear blossoms. But when the Chu palace fell and the Kingdom of Jiang rose again, she remained forever in the blazing flames. As memories of events from a thousand years ago unfold, Shen Li stands in the imperial mausoleum exhibition hall, her gaze drawn to a painting with no face. "Do you think there will ever come a day when there are no more wars, and everyone can live in peace and prosperity?" "I believe so." At eighteen, Heng Yi was the very picture of a favored child of heaven. Yet one night, he abandoned everything to search for the Kingdom of Jiang from a thousand years ago. He searched for eight years. "I'll take you home. I promise." Why does the white figure that appears in his dreams always make his heart ache? Whom did he make a promise to, and why is there such sorrow in that promise? A tangled romance spanning past and present, a bond left unfinished in a previous life: can it find its happy ending this time? Coming soon: A Parting with an Old Friend Blurb: Shen Nanyin never expected to be told on her wedding day that she was being sued, and for bigamy, no less. In her wedding dress, she watches the person glide toward her through the crowd. It suddenly occurs to her that she may have married him before, but she refuses to admit it. As the younger sister of Shen Qingchao, the notorious traitor known to everyone in Nanxiao, Shen Nanyin has always presented herself as gentle, sweet, kind, and possessed of every other fine quality. Even Shen Qingchao's sworn enemies speak softly to her, afraid of frightening her. Yet Shen Qingchao is a villain everyone wants dead. He has brought the imperial family to heel, leaving even Princess Nan Yue as a plaything in his grasp. His sister, Shen Nanyin, on the other hand, is well regarded. Everyone sighs that Shen Nanyin must have had the worst luck in the world to be Shen Qingchao's sister. "Shen Nanyin, you were the one who pursued me back then. Did you think you could marry me when you wanted and abandon me whenever you pleased?" Xiao Jingyu looks at the most dazzling sight in the crowd, his gaze churning with emotion. Shen Nanyin only gives him a scornful smile. "Why do you think I married you? Knowing what I know now, I wish I'd killed you." The hatred in Shen Nanyin's eyes is so fierce that not a trace of warmth remains in her gaze. "You did it for Shen Qingchao." In Shen Nanyin's heart, Shen Qingchao is the most important person in the world. She watches him rise to power over all beneath heaven, but keenly senses that the situation is unstable. She thinks that by marrying Prince Chen, she can gradually resolve every grievance, never realizing that she will become the instrument of his death. When he asks if she wants to marry Prince Chen, she firmly says yes. Shen Qingchao looks at her for a long time, then simply replies, "All right." She doesn't understand at the time. But on her wedding day, when she runs toward him with all her strength and sees him lying on the ground, covered in blood, while her new husband holds a sword still dripping with blood, she finally understands. In the end, it was her naivete and self-righteousness that became the instrument of his death. Shen Qingchao dies, and Shen Nanyin is imprisoned for five years. Five years later, the world has changed. When she returns to the capital, confronted with people she once knew, Shen Nanyin discovers that the kindness and docility she once had seem to have vanished without a trace. Theme: Steadfastness, fearlessness, and staying true to one's original convictions