The Icy Earl Bends for Me

My next book is The Pei Young Master, Please Divorce Me. Coming soon: My Gloomy Uncle Has His Eye on Me and I Survived in the Eastern Palace Until I Became Empress. Their blurbs are at the very bottom. If they sound like your cup of tea, give them a try...

An icy, blunt, secretly affectionate earl who craves love * A delicate, stubborn, clever noblewoman from a marquis's household

Nan Xu is the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yong'an. Noble by birth and beautiful as a painting, she is the most envied young woman in the capital.

Then the new emperor ascends the throne, her family falls from favor, and her childhood sweetheart, whom she was about to marry, suddenly becomes a prince consort.

Though raised in the inner chambers, Nan Xu has a mind of her own. She immediately demands the return of their betrothal token, determined to cut ties with the faithless man once and for all.

But before she can finish browsing the collection of handsome men's portraits her mother-in-law has gathered, an imperial decree arrives at the marquis's estate.

Her betrothed is none other than Duan Wenpei, the newly favored Earl of Weiyang, who recently arrested her second brother and seized her family's iron deed of immunity from execution.

An icy-faced devil paired with a fallen noblewoman? The whole capital is waiting to laugh at them.

On their wedding night, Duan Wenpei gives Nan Xu a divorce agreement that has yet to be signed or stamped.

"If one day you can't bear living in this household anymore, you may leave whenever you wish."

Clutching the divorce agreement, Nan Xu looks at the man's chiseled profile in the candlelight and suddenly thinks that perhaps her cold and distant husband isn't so hard to get along with after all.

At least he knows where to draw the line.

Six months later, Nan Xu takes out the divorce agreement and asks Duan Wenpei to honor their arrangement.

But Duan Wenpei keeps spending night after night in her room, refusing to leave.

"The divorce agreement?" He bends over her, his hot breath brushing her sensitive ear. His fingers graze the contract suggestively, and his voice is low and amused. "My lady must be mistaken. When did your husband ever write such a thing?"

His gaze is like a wolf's, fixed on its prey.

*

Everyone says Duan Wenpei, the Earl of Weiyang, is the sharpest blade in the emperor's hand.

Born in the countryside, cold-hearted and aloof, he married a noblewoman from the marquis's household only to satisfy the emperor and keep a pretty ornament at home. At first, Duan Wenpei thought so too.

But inside this "ornament" lay strong liquor and a sharp edge. The resilience and intelligence that flickered in her eyes and at the corners of her mouth were hooks, silently snagging his hardened heart. He sank deeper and deeper, until he was completely lost.

That day, she stood by the door, holding a letter in her delicate hand, and smiled calmly. "Please grant me a divorce, my lord."

His tall figure completely shadowed her. He lowered his head until the tip of his nose nearly touched hers. His voice was laced with ice, yet hid a burning desire.

"You want to leave? Only if..." His scorching lips brushed her cool earlobe as he whispered each word like a spell. "You kill me with an arrow, just as you did at Tianxiang Tower."

*

Duan Wenpei discovers he's terribly jealous. Man or beast, the moment a male appears, he possessively pulls Nan Xu into his arms.

Then that so-called childhood sweetheart schemes to abduct her. Duan Wenpei searches for her like a madman, and the night he brings her back, the possessiveness buried deep in his heart finally spirals out of control.

To hell with the bigger picture. Nothing is worth more than having her, even if he has to risk everything.

Later, Nan Xu lies exhausted in Duan Wenpei's arms. Her slender fingers brush his soaked temple as she asks in a drowsy voice, "When did you change your mind, my lord?"

He catches her wandering hand, licks his lips as if savoring the moment, then turns his head and takes her earlobe into his mouth.

"You tell me."

[Reading Guide]

1. Happy ending, both leads are inexperienced, marriage before love

2. The male lead has never loved a woman and grew up deprived of affection, so they'll need time to adjust

3. As the romance progresses, the male lead becomes a bit of a lovesick fool. It's hereditary

4. The heroine is relatively clear-headed

The Pei Young Master, Please Divorce Me

He Yuzhu knows Pei Zhiyi doesn't love her.

She is merely the daughter of a minor official whom the Pei family had to marry to dispel the emperor's suspicions. Her husband, a gentleman of grace and renown throughout the capital, already has someone else in his heart.

She thinks that since she is his properly wedded wife, if she treats him sincerely, she can eventually warm his heart, hard as stone.

He Yuzhu learns to be a proper wife of a great family. She honors her parents-in-law, cares for her younger siblings-in-law, and manages the vast marquis's estate with impeccable order.

But her devotion is worthless to him. The soup she makes after burning her hand is casually given to the servants. The sleeping robe she sews herself is discarded deep in a trunk. Even the jade hairpin she painstakingly crafts under a master artisan's guidance is smashed to pieces when he rushes off to meet the woman he loves.

At last, her heart turns to ash, and she decides to stop getting in his way. She will simply stay in her own courtyard and let them live in peace.

Then, on her birthday, he stumbles drunkenly into her bedroom and forces himself on her, all the while murmuring another woman's name between kisses.

He Yuzhu gives up on him completely. Resting a hand on her still-flat belly, she leaves behind a divorce agreement and flees.

*

As the eldest son of the illustrious Pei clan, Pei Zhiyi is disciplined, self-controlled, and impeccably proper. The only two times he ever lost his composure in his life included the moment he had to abandon his childhood sweetheart for the sake of his family and marry He Yuzhu, the daughter of a minor official.

On their wedding night, he sees the woman's hopeful, bashful gaze and coldly leaves her with a single command: "Be a proper young madam of the Pei family." Then he walks away.

He dislikes her because her very existence constantly reminds him that even someone as calculating and capable as he is cannot escape having to compromise for his family.

So he deliberately ignores her. No matter how carefully she tries to please him, he responds with coldness and indifference.

Then one day, someone drugs him and, by a twist of fate, he shares a night of passion with her. Thinking it was another one of her schemes, he despises her even more and resolves to end things with her for good.

He goes to her courtyard to find her, only to learn she has left the city to pray for blessings. He sits alone all day in the courtyard he rarely visits. He doesn't get He Yuzhu back, only news that her carriage went over a cliff and she is missing.

Pei Zhiyi crumples the divorce agreement and falls gravely ill.

Later, someone sees the refined, aloof eldest young master of the Pei family at the bottom of a cliff behind a Buddhist temple outside the capital. His fingers are bloody, and he looks like a madman as he keeps digging through the rubble, again and again rasping, "He Yuzhu, come out. I don't care if you're alive or dead... I want to see your body."

* Later still, the Jade Pearl Madam, whose jade business has made her famous throughout Jiangnan, treats everyone with warmth, except for the head of the Pei family, Pei Zhiyi.

Theme: Whether loving or being loved, a woman must love herself first