Seduce the Ferocious Crown Prince

On the first day Lin Shuxue, a gentle and quiet young woman, is summoned to the capital by her aunt, the empress dowager, she mistakes Mu Ligou, standing before the palace gates, for her cousin and offers him a graceful bow.

The next moment, a large, bony hand grips her delicate chin.

Her almond-shaped eyes grow misty, and the beautiful young woman finds herself caught in the muddy depths of his gloomy gaze.

Mu Ligou sneers. "I am not your cousin. If you're smart, little sister, you'll leave the capital now, while you still can."

She doesn't understand why he's so hostile from the moment they meet.

When people say the crown prince has always been vicious and cruel, she believes them and doesn't think any further about it.

Who could have guessed that the real villains in the palace are her loving aunt, her mild-mannered cousin, and her lively cousin-sister?

The reason she was summoned to the capital is that the Great Mu's campaign against the Western Rong has gone poorly. The court plans to arrange a political marriage a year from now, and she is to be the sacrifice in place of her cousin-sister, sent off to marry into the Western Rong.

Lin Shuxue doesn't want to marry far away, only to be buried in a foreign land when she dies.

She wants to return to her ailing father. The only person she can ask for help is Mu Ligou, the cruel prince who once urged her to leave the capital.

And all she has to offer is herself.

After several attempts to seduce him, Mu Ligou allows her to nestle against his knees.

He winds a lock of her dark hair around his finger, breathes in its scent, and smiles. "If you want my help, little sister, what can you offer in return?"

She lifts her shining almond eyes and gives the answer she's prepared in advance. "If Your Highness agrees to let me return home after you ascend the throne, I'll give you everything I have."

She sees how desperately he longs for the supreme throne. Before dawn, she forces herself to rise on trembling legs and takes on the role of his informant at her aunt's side.

He keeps his word. Not long after taking the throne, he arranges for her to return home.

But less than a month later, just after her father announces that she will take a husband into their family, the new emperor personally arrives at Yannan Isle, a thousand miles away. He corners her step by step, then demands in a dangerous tone, "Who is my empress planning to invite into her bedchamber?"

Theme: Finding a glimmer of hope in a desperate situation