The Junior Concubine Just Wants to Get By

[Coming soon: Sweet Crossing, an ultra-sweet story! The blurb is below. If you like it, please add it to your collection! Heart~]

Blurb:

Guan Yuan has been Dou Zhao's tea-serving maid since she was six. Easygoing by nature, all she ever wanted was to coast through life and stay alive. But every day, Dou Zhao nitpicks and finds fault with her, forcing her to improve. She's always been afraid of him.

Dou Zhao is a scion of a powerful family with influence over the court. Though still young, he's already the Crown Prince's tutor. He looks like an immortal descended from the heavens, and was raised to be aloof, indifferent, and coldhearted. He never takes anyone seriously, especially women.

Noble ladies who want to marry him could line up from the south end of the city to the north, but he likes not a one of them. He has dragged things out until nearly twenty without marrying.

She thought he simply wasn't interested in women by nature. But on his birthday, after the old matriarch made him drink several cups of wine, he returned home slightly drunk.

Guan Yuan made him tea to sober him up, as she always did. Instead of taking the cup, he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"My A Yuan, you've grown up..."

Only after that night did Guan Yuan learn that the truly frightening one was the man who had gotten a taste for her and wanted more.

Because he had told her not to let anyone know about their relationship, Guan Yuan kept their secret, hoping that one day he would give her an official place at his side.

But instead of a title, she received news that he was to be married to a princess.

Everyone knew the princess was domineering. She once had a lady-in-waiting beaten to death just for looking at Dou Zhao a little too long.

Guan Yuan thought her days here were probably numbered.

That night, she went to beg Dou Zhao to let her leave, only to overhear him telling the old matriarch:

"A Yuan is only a maid. Just pair her off with some servant and be done with it. Why go to all that trouble?"

Guan Yuan was shocked and heartbroken. She fled that very night.

**

Dou Zhao had thought there was nothing in this world he couldn't get. It wasn't until the little concubine he'd raised ran away, and he turned the whole capital of Shangjing upside down without finding her, that the pain in his heart made him understand: the thing he wanted most really was beyond his reach!

**

Later, Guan Yuan's exquisite tea-making and extraordinary beauty drew the attention of a local official, who had her make tea for the Crown Prince, then traveling incognito.

The Crown Prince took a liking to her at first sight and called her to sit beside him. Then Dou Zhao, the Crown Prince's tutor who had even refused a princess's marriage decree, said coolly, "You seem to have a cold constitution, miss. How convenient that I'm full of warmth. You'd be much better off sitting beside me."

Guan Yuan: "..."

+++++++++++++++++

Upcoming: Sweet Crossing

[Chaste, mute painter x sly, charming younger sister-in-law]

Bai Shunge was born the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Wuning. After her birth mother died, she was sent to live with her maternal cousin's family in Chu.

When she turned seventeen and it was time to arrange her marriage, the Marquis of Wuning suddenly summoned her back to the capital to take her younger sister's place and marry Shen Changjing, the capital's number-one playboy.

On the way back, she met an exceptionally handsome and graceful painter in a peach grove.

A violent rainstorm brought two disillusioned souls together in a passionate, soul-stirring encounter in the dark.

She thought it was only a fleeting affair, but at the Shen family's spring banquet, she saw the painter again.

Dressed in white, he seemed entirely out of place in this noisy world, with his clear, handsome features and graceful bearing.

Seeing her stare at the painter in shock, Shen Changjing helpfully introduced him. "That's my elder brother. He damaged his voice when he was a child and became a bit of a loner. He's been traveling the world for years, but suddenly returned to the capital half a month ago. Seems like he's looking for someone. Honestly..."

Before he could finish, the painter noticed them and came over of his own accord.

Shen Changjing introduced them first. "Elder Brother, this is my future wife, Bai Shunge. Shunge, hurry up and greet him."

Bai Shunge had no choice but to lower her head and greet him softly. "Elder Brother!"

The painter looked at her, his expression unreadable. After a long moment, he made a small gesture.

The servant behind him immediately spoke for him. "Miss, have we met before?"

Bai Shunge's taut nerves relaxed at once. Since he didn't dare say for sure, and had walked right into this situation himself, then...

"How could a celestial crane from the clouds like you ever be easy to meet?" She lifted her eyes and smiled brightly. "Though we've never met, you look familiar. Let's call it... a long-awaited reunion!"

Theme: May life be bright with sunshine, and may the purple roads be fragrant.