The Concubine's Poisonous Heart

A cold and aloof, emotionally detached yet secretly flirtatious lone official male lead x a breathtakingly beautiful, somewhat scheming, physically frail female lead

1.

Sheng Shiyuan was an inconspicuous concubine-born daughter of the main branch of the prestigious Sheng family. Her birth mother had once been a celebrated courtesan in Jiangnan, but beauty was short-lived, and she passed away not long after giving birth to her.

As a young child, Sheng Shiyuan was fortunate enough to be brought into the main residence and raised by her stepmother. She became a little shadow who followed the Sheng family's honored legitimate eldest daughter, Sheng Jinxin.

Outsiders saw only how Sheng Shiyuan followed Sheng Jinxin around in gold and silver, basking in her reflected glory. They did not know her stepmother had long since decided that she would one day become her elder sister's concubine, all because she had a bewitching beauty that could make fish sink and geese fall, with skin like ice and bones like jade.

Born a concubine-born daughter and raised by her stepmother, Sheng Shiyuan knew all too well the pain and despair of being a concubine. So when she learned of her stepmother's plans, she began making preparations for her future early.

2. To protect the family's good name and keep its descendants from being dragged into the struggle for the throne after his death, the Sheng family patriarch arranged an infant betrothal for Sheng Jinxin when she was born. Her betrothed was from the Wang family of Langya, a distinguished and venerable clan a thousand li away.

Who could have guessed that Sheng Jinxin would still become entangled with the Third Prince and persuade her father to secretly join his faction?

So when the bookish Zongzheng Jue came to ask for Sheng Jinxin's hand with the betrothal token, only for Sheng's father to subtly and overtly urge him to break off the engagement, Sheng Shiyuan felt that the scholar had arrived at exactly the right time.

Perhaps she could use this penniless scholar to escape the suffocating Sheng residence.

3.

Not long after the wedding, her elder sister got her wish and became the Third Prince's secondary consort, finally living the noble life she had always dreamed of.

Looking at the little courtyard where she had none of the things she wanted, Sheng Shiyuan still felt far more at ease than she had at the Sheng residence. Even when her elder sister mocked her on the street, she simply smiled and let it pass.

A few days later, the Emperor publicly rebuked the Third Prince, humiliating him and ordering him to reflect on his actions behind closed doors.

When Sheng Shiyuan heard the news, she was embroidering clothes for her unborn child. She looked up at the man cracking walnuts for her and gave him a charming, alluring smile.

4.

Zongzheng Jue was born with little capacity for affection. He had agreed to marry a daughter of the Sheng family only to repay the Wang family of Langya for looking after him and his mother all these years.

Unfortunately, the Sheng family no longer wished to go through with the marriage. He would not force the matter.

Until the stunningly beautiful, graceful Sheng family's concubine-born daughter took the opportunity, while pouring him tea, to secretly circle her finger in his palm.

Zongzheng Jue lowered his eyelids. For the first time, he learned what it felt like to be weak in the knees.

Content warnings:

1. One couple, both sexually inexperienced. The male lead is devoted to his career and has no eyes for women, except the female lead.

2. They are all ordinary people of the past, with no one reborn and no one who transmigrates, though the female lead has a little golden finger, a special perk for the author's favorite. Overall, it's a slow-paced, everyday-life story, and at heart, a sweet little romance.

3. The male lead is a little devil who likes to tease the female lead. He's the childish sort who picks on someone because he likes her.

4. The female lead is in poor health, in a Schrodinger's-cat sort of way. She's weak, but not weak enough to die.

5. This is my first historical romance. I'll do my best to give the prose a more classical feel, but at heart, it's a sweet little romance. (Bows.)

(Synopsis posted on September 7, 2023)

Take a look at my upcoming novel!

"Pampered Concubine"

Everyone said that Yun Wan, the daughter of a minor official, must have had ancestors who burned incense for generations to earn the good fortune of marrying into the illustrious Duke of Zhenguo's household as the legal wife of the heir, Yuwen Lin.

At first, Yun Wan thought so too, until her husband left on a military campaign on their wedding night and was gone for three years.

During those three years, Yun Wan devoted herself to managing the household and caring for the elderly Duchess. Just as she finally welcomed her husband home, he brought along a woman with a slightly rounded belly, the cherished white moonlight he had held in his heart all along.

But before Yun Wan could put on the airs of a legal wife and face off against the white moonlight, her father, an upright man known for his integrity, was falsely accused and thrown into prison.

She tried to ask her husband to investigate the truth, only to receive a divorce letter he had written long ago.

It turned out he had planned everything from the start. She had been too foolish and naive.

Yun Wan suddenly felt that everything she had given over the years was one enormous joke.

Dazed and caught off guard, she was knocked unconscious by the white moonlight's people and sold into a brothel.

Just as she was being forced to sell herself, she happened to meet Yuwen Ting, the Duke of Zhenguo, who had just returned to the capital from the borderlands.

The young duke was nearly thirty, tall and imposing, with a dashing, vigorous air, like a god descended from the heavens.

Yun Wan curled her lip in a cold smile. If the son had done wrong, then let the father make it right.

**

Though Yun Wan was his concubine, kept in a separate residence, Yuwen Ting doted on her completely. He would give her the moon if she asked, and the stars if she wanted them.

But Yun Wan only wanted revenge, and tried every way she could to use the duke's power to clear her father's name.

Once she had achieved everything she wanted, Yun Wan's identity was exposed as well.

Knowing she could no longer face Yuwen Ting, Yun Wan left behind only an apology letter and the pigeon-blood ruby anklet the man had tied around her ankle himself, then disappeared.

When Yuwen Ting went to the little courtyard to demand an explanation from Yun Wan, he saw what she had left on the table and laughed in anger.

No one in this world could provoke him and walk away unscathed.

Several months later, in the waterways of Jiangnan.

Yuwen Ting, his eyes red, cornered a pregnant woman in a deserted alley and kissed her.

When the kiss ended, he spoke in a hoarse, plaintive voice. "Wanwan, do you know that hiding the heir of the Duke of Zhenguo's household is a serious crime?"

#An old flame catches fire, and there's no putting it out#

#The Duke of Zhenguo is hopelessly in love with Wanwan#

Reader's guide:

1. A scheming, darkening female lead x a tough, rugged, straightforward man. Ten-year age gap, slow-burn sweet romance, one couple, sexually inexperienced, happy ending.

2. Don't ask why the male lead is this old and still hasn't been with a woman. He's ill, and only the female lead can cure him.

3. The unlucky son isn't his biological child. The old Duchess adopted him from among the clan.

4. Set in an alternate world with extensive creative liberties. Please don't nitpick historical details. The writing is average, and the plot exists to serve the main couple.

Premise: Stand on your own and grow stronger