Bright Days Ahead

The Zhou royal house is in decline, and the feudal lords govern their own territories. The ruler of Yong asks the Zhou king for his heir to marry a royal princess, and the Son of Heaven grants his request.

When the princess arrives in Yong, the heir's old illness relapses, and he is near death.

The second prince, Yong Shu, is a likely candidate to become the next heir, but the King of Yong favors his third son. With no heir appointed, the princess's future husband is uncertain.

But none of this has anything to do with A Yao. She is only a maidservant to the princess, and the only remarkable thing about her is that she resembles the princess by about thirty percent.

A Yao hates her face. Her looks always make her a cheap substitute in the eyes of certain people.

Yong Shu is one of them.

Yong Shu was once held hostage in the Zhou court, where he grew up alongside the princess. He is the husband she hopes for.

But even the deepest feelings can lead to quarrels. To make the princess care about him, he takes A Yao, who is kneeling nearby, away with him.

A Yao sits on a rock by the river, watching the man repeatedly wash his hands. Bored, she rolls her eyes. He only held her hand. Why act so disgusted?

In the eyes of outsiders, Prince Yong Shu is a man of noble character with many followers.

But A Yao knows the vicious heart beneath his sage-like exterior. He detests her so much that he even wants her to be buried with him after his death.

Later, A Yao regains her lost memories. Looking at the man sitting by her bed, she can't help shivering.

She is the princess.

*

When Yong Shu first met Lady Wei, she told him to become her slave. He considered it a great humiliation.

Inspired by the Spring and Autumn period, but the setting is very loose.

----Forthcoming----

"The Seven-Year Itch, But for the Emperor and Empress" blurb:

The emperor and empress's marriage enters its seventh year.

Over these seven years, palace maids have come one after another, hoping to retrace the empress's path to power.

After all, before she became empress, she was only a lowly dancer.

Yet the emperor's harem remains practically empty. He dotes on the empress alone.

Until the seventh year, when the emperor brings back another woman.

Often, the empress thinks she ought to be content.

She has risen to the most honored position among women and borne the empire's crown prince. Surely the history books will preserve some trace of her.

She could never have imagined this back then.

She has almost forgotten what life was like before.

The empress looks at the woman beside the emperor, who shares her humble origins. The empress was as young as she is now, but the emperor was even harder to get along with back then.

Only the old palace servants still remember that the empress was originally seized and brought into the palace by force, and that the golden bricks of Kunning Palace were stained with blood more than once.

The empress has forgotten many of the agonies of becoming empress. She remembers only that she must seize even more power.

At first, ministers often tried to place women in his harem, but he still had feelings for her then, so he refused amid her tearful pleas.

Later, he brought back a dancer. He waited all afternoon, but she never came.

He lost interest.

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"Elder Brother" blurb:

Everyone says that You Ning is blessed. Though she lost her parents young, the empress dowager adopted her and raised her in the palace, pampered and adored.

Zhao You Ning anxiously plays the daughter the empress dowager wants, soothing her grief over losing her own daughter in exchange for a place to call home.

She is the brightest jewel in the capital, the empress dowager's most beloved child, and the long princess adored by all.

But the emperor dislikes her.

You Ning is also afraid of this imperial elder brother. When the empress dowager chooses a husband for her, You Ning thinks the emperor, her brother in name only, must be the one in the palace who is happiest about it.

But that day, the emperor's attendant stands respectfully outside the long princess's door, his shrill voice conveying the emperor's decree.

Theme: Face life's difficulties with a positive attitude