She Is So Heartless

● Coldhearted heroine × hero who doesn't realize he's in love | Fallen princess × older powerful minister

After the Five Barbarians ravaged China and the Han court moved south, the royal house declined. Only the Wang and Xie families ruled the realm together.

For the sake of the royal family's standing, Princess Longhan was married off to Xie Yun, the Grand Marshal.

On their wedding night, Longhan met Xie Yun, her husband, who was rumored to be bloodthirsty and murderous.

His black hair was crowned with a formal headpiece, his skin pale and his lips thin. His eyes were so dark they seemed demonic, making even his festive wedding robes look as though they had been soaked in blood.

He stood with his hands behind his back, watching his new bride tremble with fear. His voice was cold and critical. "Can you?"

*

To show his good relations with the Xie family, the Han emperor searched through the imperial genealogy until he found a marriage connection from a hundred years earlier, then forced a familial title upon Xie Yun, calling him Imperial Uncle.

After their wedding, Princess Longhan knew her position as his wife was uncertain. Hoping to earn his affection, she, too, called Xie Yun Imperial Uncle.

With a jade thumb ring on his hand, Xie Yun lifted her pitiful little chin and drawled, "Qingqing, if you want to claim we're relatives, you should call me Daddy."

*

Someone once cursed Xie Yun to spend his life loving without being loved in return. He had scoffed at the idea.

He was the most powerful man of his age. How could he ever be caught up in a petty romance?

Even with Li Huaji, he had only valued her intelligence and obedience. She never caused him trouble or made things difficult for him, and would make an excellent wife.

But love works quietly, like rain seeping into the earth. By the time he came to his senses, he was already drowning in a boundless sea of it.

He looked at his young wife, her belly swollen with child, kneeling before him and pleading with the calmness he had once admired but now hated with all his heart.

"If you let my younger brother and me go, I'll give birth to the child for you. I swear I will never acknowledge him, and he will never know who his birth mother is. You can still marry a woman from a prestigious family and let her be his mother. But if you refuse, we'll both die. I promise I'll do exactly as I say."

Reading Guide:

● The leads are not related by blood. The emperor shamelessly claimed Xie Yun as a relative, and Daddy is just the hero's peculiar kink.

● Older dom hero with a fatherly vibe / age gap / size difference

● Slow burn, with the relationship developing in the early chapters. The wedding is in Chapter 23.

This will be my next book. If you're interested, add The Stolen Sister to your reading list.

With a duke for a father and a princess for a mother, Xie Yuman had spent the first seventeen years of her life in splendid comfort.

Then the true young master, missing for many years, returned, and Xie Yuman learned she was a fake heiress.

A bolt from the blue.

Though the Duke and Duchess were willing to keep raising her until she married, in gratitude for the years they had brought her up, Xie Yuman's standing in Chang'an plummeted overnight.

Her beloved fiance broke off their engagement. Her once-close friends avoided her, while the noblewomen who had always been her rivals openly mocked and humiliated her.

What was she supposed to do? Go back to the countryside and marry some local landowner?

Xie Yuman clutched her handkerchief and agonized over it before turning her gaze to Xie Guishan, who had only recently returned home.

Xie Guishan had grown up in a bandit's lair after being lost from home. Later, he enlisted in the army and had cut down countless enemies. He was built like a wall, with sharp, star-bright eyes and a scar across his face. Every movement radiated menace.

Suppressing her fear, Xie Yuman sewed clothes for him, brought him pastries and medicine, and even shielded him from the gossip spreading through Chang'an.

She managed to keep it up for a while, but eventually fled under the man's scorching gaze, as if he were about to devour her.

Waaah, marrying a local landowner would be better than being eaten up like a plate of pastries.

*

Though Xie Guishan had spent years away and was too rough for Chang'an's elite families, he was a decorated war hero with a powerful family behind him. Matchmakers swarmed his door, afraid they would miss their chance with this rising star.

Xie Guishan turned them all away, and the people of Chang'an assumed he was too proud to consider anyone.

They had no idea he was cornering Xie Yuman by a rockery and patiently coaxing her. "Are you really willing to go back? Are silk and satin uncomfortable to wear, or do you not like gold and silver hairpins?"

"That Miss Liu teamed up with your idiot ex-fiance to mock you yesterday. You aren't going to get revenge? Without me, you won't have anyone to back you up."

"Dump that pretty boy already. With a body like a boiled chicken, how could he take care of you as well as I can?"

His large hand at her waist was scorching, as though it could melt her thin dress. Xie Yuman was terrified and pleaded in a small voice, "Then you have to promise you won't bully me in the future."

Xie Guishan clicked his tongue and smiled. "That I can't promise, dear little sister. Your big brother's been hungry for a long time. I might go crazy."

Theme: Even in troubled times, you must find yourself