All for My Brother

Shen Zhuyin was only twenty-one when she died.

She was unlearned, timid, and cowardly, and had been born a maidservant. Aside from a face as lovely as a hibiscus, she was good for nothing.

Yet thanks to an adopted elder brother with immense power and an iron fist, and a husband of noble birth, as graceful as an orchid and a jade tree, she became the most envied woman in all of the capital at the age of twenty-one.

And yet she still died.

Her elder brother had displeased the emperor, and her husband, hoping to win the emperor's favor, used her as bait to trick her brother into willingly walking into a sea of flames.

Her elder brother, Xie Zhuochen, was stern and cold. At the slightest displeasure, he would strike her with a ruler and never treat her with the slightest warmth.

Yet for her sake, he died in the very fire he feared most.

How could she go on living?

Who could have imagined that after Shen Zhuyin died, she would see not the underworld, but her seventeen-year-old elder brother?

For some unknown reason, she had returned to the year she disguised herself as a boy, left the capital in an ox cart, and accompanied her brother on his journey to study.

The past flashed through Shen Zhuyin's mind like glimmers of light.

Soon, as her heart began to stir, she would fall in love at first sight with her classmate, Lou Zheng, the heir to the Prince of Pingxi.

She thought she'd hidden it well, but one quiet night, she still heard her brother ask her bluntly, "Do you like him?"

She said, "Yes."

After a pause, she added, "I know what my status is. I won't delude myself with impossible hopes."

Her brother was silent for a long while. Just as she thought the matter was over, his calm, desolate voice suddenly rang out.

Her brother said, "You will be worthy of him."

After that, her brother passed the imperial examinations and, in order to rise through the ranks, didn't hesitate to become the sharpest blade in the Second Prince's hand.

He helped him win over officials, eliminate political rivals, and bear the blame...

When he had gained power over the entire court, her brother married her into the Prince of Pingxi's household in a grand ceremony, while his own side remained empty and desolate.

Later, the Second Prince became emperor, and the very blade that had served him became a threat.

To win the emperor's favor, Lou Zheng used her as bait and lured her brother to his death in a sea of flames...

No.

She would never let any of that happen again.

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Male lead's perspective:

Xie Zhuochen knew he was despicable. Under the guise of being her elder brother, he sheltered and disciplined her, taught her to be independent, and reproached her for being timid, all while giving her no chance to "grow wings."

It would be best if she remained timid and cowardly forever, unable to withstand hardship and unable to leave him.

But one day, she suddenly woke from a dream, and everything began to change.

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1. The female lead doesn't like studying. (Content warning.)

2. The female lead grows over time. Her personality is shaped by her surroundings. In her previous life and the early part of her reborn life, she isn't very clever and can't always make perfect choices. She only changes later on. Don't read if that's not for you.

3. The male lead is no gentleman. He has selfish desires, especially possessiveness, and will briefly behave in obsessive and immoral ways toward the female lead.

4. The male lead is a dark, hypocritical type who says one thing and means another. The second male lead chases after the female lead and suffers for love, but doesn't win her. The third male lead is an intermittently cheerful puppy.

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Please add my upcoming novel, After I Drive the Prince Mad, to your collection!

On a snowy night, with soldiers chasing her from behind and her younger sister growing weaker on her back, Zhu Yu, no longer able to feel her own body temperature, used the last of her strength in desperation to stop the only carriage on the empty street. She begged the noble inside to save her frail younger sister, who had been sickly since birth.

That was what she believed was her first meeting with Shang Chu, the Prince of Rui.

That night, trembling in the carriage, she used her clumsy "services" to secure a slim chance of survival for herself and her younger sister.

From that night on, she became Shang Chu's secret mistress.

She became the "cat" he could knead and toy with at will when he was bored, the "paper" he used when he felt inspired to paint, and the plaything he personally honed until it suited his every desire.

She had no choice.

Until one day, she learned the real reason Shang Chu had inexplicably confined her to her quarters.

The emperor had arranged his marriage. He was going to wed.

The next day, she received a letter and a keepsake from her younger sister.

*

Shang Chu, the Prince of Rui, was the emperor's younger brother. He was exceptionally handsome but dark-tempered. Naturally suspicious and violent in his methods, he never showed anyone the slightest warmth. People in and out of court avoided him whenever they could.

No one would believe that a man like him would keep a mistress hidden away in a golden house.

And even less could they imagine that he would gradually go mad over an insignificant mistress.

He dragged Zhu Yu back four times.

Each time she ran, he lost a little more of his reason.

As long as he could keep her by his side, anything would do.

With lies, traps, force, threats... even pleas.

Shang Chu had never imagined he would come to this.

He placed a sharp knife in Zhu Yu's hand, then took hold of it and guided her hand to draw a blood-red camellia across his chest.

Only to ask one thing:

"Is the camellia I gave you as beautiful as the one he gave you?"

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Theme: Everyone is born with something they can contribute.