The Black Moonlight Can't Escape

(Complete, ready to read.)

Pei Jin was switched at birth as a child and became the legitimate daughter of the Marquis's household.

Meanwhile, Ming Yu, the true legitimate child of the Marquis's household, born to a family of noble status, took her place and lived through a life like a living hell.

For all these years, even staying alive took every ounce of his strength.

At last, the two were switched back. Pei Jin cried and refused to return to where she had come from.

The Marchioness couldn't bear to part with her either and wanted to keep her.

“If she stays, then what have I been all these years?” Ming Yu shot her a frigid look, and the Marchioness didn't dare keep Pei Jin.

Pei Jin was afraid of life outside the estate, and she also felt she owed Ming Yu. She could only pull out all the stops to win him over.

“Wouldn't you... like a little sister? I can go to school with you every day from now on, give you all my favorite sweet cakes, and never let anyone bully you again! How about it... big brother?”

“I'm not your brother!”

Ming Yu felt nothing but disgust for her.

Pei Jin had no choice but to leave.

Years later, Pei Jin knocked on the Marquis's door again, this time to avoid being sold off by her birth father as the eighteenth concubine to a rich old man.

She knew that the heir, Ming Yu, detested her most of all, so she didn't dare ask the main branch directly. Instead, she went to find Concubine Li of the second branch.

Concubine Li said, “Though my Zhi'er is a son born to a concubine, given your current status... If you're willing, I can have him take you as a concubine.”

Pei Jin knew she would never again rise to the top in this life. Rather than be tormented to death by a frightening old man, she would be better off staying at the Marquis's household as a concubine. At least the household had strict rules, so she was unlikely to be mistreated.

But on the day she was carried through the gates, she was abducted anyway.

And the one who abducted her was none other than the heir, Ming Yu, the very person she had once hoped to call her brother.

She stared fearfully at him, hidden in the deep shadows, and almost burst into tears. “Coming to the Marquis's household as a concubine... isn't exactly an honor. Can you... really not tolerate me that much?”

After all... there had been a time when she had truly protected him.

“No.” The imposing man seated above her spoke coldly. “Unless... you ask me instead.”

Pei Jin lay on a bed covered in golden-silk bedding. The only thought in her mind was: Escape!

She had to escape! Because... Fu Ming Yu was a madman!

The following are upcoming novels. If you like them, please leave a like before you go, dear readers~~^_^

Upcoming: The Lovesick Princess Consort Comes to Her Senses

Ling Zhaozhao, Princess Consort of Prince Ming, loved him with an obsessive, unwavering devotion.

In the eyes of the world, Xie Yanhan, Prince Ming, was nothing but a cowardly failure, afraid of death, a useless, weakling cripple.

But to Ling Zhaozhao, his retreat from the world was a transcendent, open-minded acceptance of life, and his throwing in the towel was a profound wisdom for navigating it.

During Xie Yanhan's darkest days, his leg was ruined, his fiancee broke off their engagement, and he was exiled.

Ling Zhaozhao was the one who refused to give up on him. She spent every last coin of the Ling family's fortune to save his life, then followed him alone to his place of exile.

The day a plague sealed off the city, she wept as she broke into the forbidden zone. Somehow, the frail woman found the strength to drag him from a pile of pus-covered corpses. She nursed him without rest, and wrested him from death's grasp by sheer force of will.

Ling Zhaozhao thought that after all her suffering, she would finally win his heart. But after returning from the capital, he brought back his former fiancee, who had fallen on hard times and was in trouble.

“Zhaozhao, I am grateful to you, but she is the one I love.”

Only then did Ling Zhaozhao realize that, in his eyes, she had always been trying to cash in on the debt he owed her.

Her family had fallen into ruin, and her older brother had been conscripted to the frontier, his fate unknown. After sacrificing so much, Ling Zhaozhao finally saw him tell a bandit, “Let Tongtong go, and I'll hand the Ling family over to you.”

Her heart twisted with pain. She couldn't take it anymore.

Even if digging out the love parasite risked her life, she would rip out the damn thing.

As it turned out, Ling Zhaozhao was infatuated with Prince Ming only because she had been infected by a love parasite, which could not easily be removed.

Everyone in the Ling family knew about it. Faced with two evils, they had let Ling Zhaozhao remain obsessed with Prince Ming.

·

Having survived the ordeal of removing the parasite, Ling Zhaozhao suddenly felt that the world had gone quiet. Her mind was clear.

Looking back on what she had done, she wanted to curse. What kind of godforsaken nonsense was that? It was so embarrassing to watch. Was she, Ling Zhaozhao, really the one who chased after a useless cripple?!

If she was going to chase after anything, it would be something worthwhile, like... a woman's highest station, power, and fame...

·

Ling Zhaozhao's passionate, uninhibited love made Xie Yanhan want to draw closer, yet afraid to do so.

He kept telling himself that Ye Shutong was the one he loved, but to no avail.

Later, he nearly managed to convince himself that after he and Ling Zhaozhao worked together to save Ye Shutong, he would explain everything to Ye and then settle down with Ling Zhaozhao.

But Ling Zhaozhao ruthlessly withdrew from him in an instant.

·

Later still, Prince Ming, who had always been content to drift through life, rebelled. In the great hall, his battle robes were soaked in blood, and he was consumed by a murderous fury.

Because his Zhaozhao wanted to be empress. He would never let anyone else take the throne, unless he was dead.

#Pah! A man's love is nothing compared to building a career!#

#What does a lovesick girl become after her heartstrings are cut? Answer: career-minded!#

Upcoming 1: After Being Reborn, I Won't Be the Heir's Wife

In her previous life, Jiang Funing, an orphan with nothing to her name, married the heir and became his wife. Everyone said she was lucky, that fortune had fallen right into her lap.

Only she knew that everyone in the Marquis's household was actually sighing over it.

The Marquis and his wife treated her like their own daughter, but whenever anyone talked about the marriage, their faces showed regret.

Lu Shi'an never said it aloud, but the look in his eyes when he gazed at Princess Feiyan was so heated that anyone could see it. When he looked at Jiang Funing, his gaze was always annoyed, with a hint of contempt.

Reborn, Jiang Funing decided to take a different path and make everyone happy.

She would never again be Lu Shi'an's wife!

But to her surprise, her former husband, Lu Shi'an, had also been reborn. This time, she told him she wanted to take a different path.

He thought she wanted to make up for the regrets of her previous life. He thought she wanted to live in Cuiwei Hall instead of Yannan Courtyard, learn how to do business instead of studying poetry, and let go of her caution so she could live freely.

But he never imagined she would leave him to take a path that didn't involve being the heir's wife.

·

Later, Lu Shi'an, who had always lived with arrogance and abandon, went completely mad.

Jiang Funing was his. Leave him? Not a chance!

Funing found the boy in red on horseback who had saved her when she was little.

When Lu Shi'an learned that Jiang Funing truly no longer loved him, he stood on the riverbank in March, with grass growing and birds in flight. Spring warmth softened the waters of the Huai River, but he trembled all over, his face as pale as a sheet.

Stubbornly refusing to let her go, he asked in a hoarse, humble voice, “What about our little Cheng'er and little Ju'er? They'll be very, very good. You... really don't plan to have them? And... what about me?”

Jiang Funing finally turned to look at him, but all she did was sigh. “Heir, the previous life is long over. This life still stretches far and wide before us. Let's both move on...”

Upcoming 2: My Plan to Divorce My Aloof Husband

Shi Ping'er was lucky. Though she was the daughter of a tofu seller from a poor, remote village, she somehow married the legitimate son of one of the capital's most prestigious scholarly families.

In her first year in the Su family, she and her new husband had little to talk about.

Sitting awkwardly beside him at a banquet, she could only force a smile and make conversation. “Xiao Yu, do you remember stealing tofu pudding from my family when we were kids?”

Everyone at the table began whispering, and Su Yuqing's handsome face suddenly turned cold.

Shi Ping'er felt helpless. She knew her husband disliked her, but it wasn't as if she'd been trying to punch above her weight.

That day, she had nowhere else to turn and only wanted to borrow some money from the Su family to arrange her parents' funeral. Who could have guessed that the Su family's grandfather would insist on honoring their verbal betrothal, to repay the kindness of a meal from the days when he had fallen on hard times?

Su Yuqing was a paragon, a young man who had passed the highest imperial examination and was the capital's celebrated top scholar. She was just an illiterate village woman who often made a fool of herself, wholly unsuited to him.

One day, he heard that his uncouth wife had caused trouble outside again. With a sigh, Su Lang went to give her some advice.

To his surprise, he found her practicing calligraphy with trembling hands under the lamplight, something she'd never done before.

He sighed and let it go. Knowing life wasn't easy for her, he didn't want to put any more pressure on her by saying more.

Later, that uncouth little wife started following him around every day, asking him to teach her. Whenever the aloof top scholar was driven to the brink of madness by her, he would advise her earnestly, “You don't have to listen to them. Just do what you're good at.”

Did he mean that she wasn't good at studying, so she shouldn't force herself? That they were mismatched in status and shouldn't try to make it work?

Shi Ping'er smiled. “Don't worry, husband. I'll do my best. Before long, you'll have some peace and quiet.”

Su Yuqing thought she meant she would work hard and improve, so he wouldn't have to put in so much effort soon. Instead, the day came when he received divorce papers.

It turned out she'd been working so hard lately because she'd made a deal with his grandfather: once she studied enough to take a job at the Prince's residence, she would agree to their divorce.

At last, Shi Ping'er was free, as if a great weight had been lifted. The day she packed her bags and left the Su residence, a heavy rain began to fall.

She climbed into the spacious carriage sent by the Prince's residence and left, unaware that behind it, the usually composed and reserved young nobleman was drenched by the rain.

Clenching his teeth, he gripped the paper in his hand: the childhood “Marriage Promise” she had given him, covered in her childish scribbles. He had tried to protect it at all costs, but it was soaked through anyway. He was going to confront her and ask why she'd broken her promise.

Upcoming 3: Coveted for Years by My Childhood Friend's Older Brother

In her previous life, Liu Xiyi gave her heart to the wrong man and ended up broken in body.

Her husband resented her too, and burned her alive, dying alongside her.

Meanwhile, the First Prince, Lu Yun, whom she had once falsely accused of flirting with his younger brother's wife, was disgraced and later rose again. He killed his father, seized the throne, and ordered the tombs of Prince Rong and his consort to be dug up.

Just as Liu Xiyi thought he would whip her corpse to vent his rage, he ordered them to whip Prince Rong's corpse instead.

His hands trembling, he lifted her up. The black sleeves of his robe, embroidered with golden clouds, gently wiped the ash from her face.

He rasped, “Xixi, you asked big brother to help you get what you wanted, but is this really what you wanted?”

Liu Xiyi watched with her own eyes as he dressed her in an empress's ceremonial robes. Defying his ministers' objections, he gave a charred corpse the rites of an empress and propped her up on the phoenix throne. Even the palace servants passing outside the hall couldn't help covering their noses with their sleeves.

She remembered telling him, when she had forced him to withdraw his troops, that her one wish in life was to try being empress once.

She knew Lu Yun had always treated her like a younger sister, cherished her, and granted her every request.

Reborn, she decided to leave her faithless childhood sweetheart and repay Lu Yun for the dignity he had given her in her previous life.

Back then, she, Prince Rong, and Lu Yun were all children, living together in the central palace.

She and Prince Rong were the beloved treasures of their aunt, the empress. Lu Yun, however, was born to a bandit's daughter and was considered utterly lowborn. He could only live in a leaky side hall in the central palace, long neglected, and his clothes were patched again and again.

She watched this boy, whom she had never treated well and had only regarded as a pawn, and quietly felt her eyes redden. With needle and thread, she embroidered a cute rabbit over a hole in his knee, then invited him to try the sweet steamed milk curd she had made herself.

The boy was overwhelmed by her kindness. From then on, he kept the old trousers she had embroidered folded away at the bottom of a trunk. On his desk, he always kept a beautiful handmade wooden box that gave off a foul stench. Inside was the enamel porcelain bowl with the Magpie Bridge Crossing design that she always used. The food inside had turned green and grown moldy, its original shape unrecognizable.

Bonus scene:

“Big brother... Your Highness, Xixi might really leave this time.”

Lu Yun smiled. “Xixi, are you asking big brother to come up with a way to coax Third Brother again?”

She shook her head. “This time, I'm really leaving. Your Highness, take care.”

The smile that had been as gentle as moonlight vanished from Lu Yun's face.

Later, he stormed into her bedchamber in the dead of night, his black clothes stained with blood and a severed head in his hand. His handsome features bore a cruel yet humble expression.

“Xixi, big brother has already killed the female assassin who tried to seduce Third Brother. I'll help you be with him. Won't you come back?”

“Xixi, why don't you call me big brother anymore?”

“Xixi, if you want it, big brother will cut out his heart for you...”

Liu Xiyi was so frightened that she knocked over her sweet soup, spilling it all over herself. “B-because I don't want to marry Lu Sheng anymore...”

Lu Yun was instantly anxious and at a loss. “Then who do you want to marry? Big brother will kidnap him for you. If you don't know who you like, I'll kidnap them all.”

Terrified, she feared he really would go and kidnap people, so she hurriedly shouted, “You! You, I mean...”

Theme: A fresh start