After Marrying the Chieftain of Another Race

[Please add How to Drive a High-and-Mighty Beauty Crazy to your reading list! Launching in May.]

With only a day left before reaching Xiliang, the wedding procession received news that the leader of Xiliang had suddenly died. Everyone was stunned.

Princess Kangle Shen Sangning had thought she could turn back, but her elder brother sent an imperial edict all the way from Yujing, ordering her to follow Xiliang custom and marry the new leader instead.

She knew the news must have spread throughout the capital. By now, everyone must be pitying her.

Watching the Xiliang procession come to meet her, Shen Sangning sighed.

At least the new leader of Xiliang was a young man, much younger than his late father.

...He wouldn't die young too, would he?

On her first day in Xiliang, Shen Sangning's attire looked completely out of place. She walked past the crowd, their expressions varied, and saw a pair of golden eyes fixed on her from the throne forged of jewels and animal hides.

The King of Xiliang came down and helped her to her feet. "There's no need for formalities. You are my wife, the Queen of Xiliang."

His eyes, bright as the golden sun, swept coldly over his attendants. "Do you all understand?"

Everyone fell silent in fear.

On her tenth day in Xiliang, a large hand lifted the tent flap in the dim candlelight. The man paused. "Are you afraid of me?"

That night, he reeked of strong liquor, but his voice was restrained and gentle. "The days in Xiliang are hot and the nights are cold. Tell me if you're chilly."

On her fiftieth day in Xiliang, he smiled. "The moon is full tonight. Let me stay here. I promise I won't do anything."

Shen Sangning was restless in her sleep and unconsciously moved closer to him.

He was the one who spent the whole night awake.

She had been in Xiliang for a year.

Shen Sangning's second brother had seized the throne, and Great Meng was at peace and prosperous.

He accompanied her back to court to visit her family. Under the astonished gazes of the capital's nobles, the king who commanded a hundred thousand cavalry said slowly:

"Here... I am only the princess's consort."

He had boundless ambition and strategic talent, but for Shen Sangning, he was willing to be nothing more than a subject of Yujing.

-

As a boy, Sule went alone to Yujing as a hostage. If not for the slight kindness shown to him by one of the palace consorts, he would have perished in the capital, surrounded by wolves, and never returned to Xiliang.

The day he saw the name on the marriage alliance document, Sule's thoughts wavered. He closed the map of Xiliang, covered in plans, and rested a hand on the scabbard at his waist.

He thought, the plan would have to be brought forward.

The night he welcomed her to Xiliang, Sule watched her across the campfire, as if he were looking at the moon over the Central Plains.

At first, he only meant to repay the small kindness her mother had shown him years ago. But later, he became hopelessly lost in the spring of love and could no longer stop chasing after her.

A mixed-blood Western Regions leader x a delicate princess from the capital

Please check out my upcoming story!

How to Drive a High-and-Mighty Beauty Crazy

Gu Juezhou was born into the Marquis of Pingyuan's household. Incomparably handsome, dignified and aloof, he had been favored by the emperor for years, with a bright and promising future ahead of him.

Most of the young noblewomen in Yujing had dreamed of marrying him, and Yu Man was one of them.

On the day she first arrived in the capital from Yangzhou, she lifted the sedan curtain with her slender hand and saw a graceful young man on horseback. Even the bright spring sunlight seemed to favor Gu Juezhou as it fell upon him.

She had thought then that his face was quite nice.

-

Gu Juezhou disliked Yu Man and found her irritating.

She was too spoiled and didn't behave like a proper young lady. Not long after arriving, she had the whole capital asking after her. She was also from Yangzhou, where Gu Juezhou's most respected elder brother had died.

But Gu Juezhou also knew that Yu Man truly liked him.

She searched the whole capital for a fine bow for him and secretly kept a portrait of him in her boudoir. She liked him so much that the whole capital joked about it.

The gossip became unbearable, making Gu Juezhou even more irritated and impatient.

Then, at a banquet, he drank a cup of wine laced with an aphrodisiac, and Yu Man's dark skirt and jade ornaments trailed across the floor.

Yu Man wept and insisted on returning to Yangzhou, but Gu Juezhou rode up and blocked her way.

He sat on his horse against the light, frowning. "Who said I wouldn't marry you?"

When others asked, Gu Juezhou only said, "Taking a woman's virtue and then refusing to marry her would damage my reputation too."

-

Gu Juezhou had planned to treat the marriage as a trivial matter, like an ordinary furnishing in his room.

But he ended up enjoying a comfortable life for quite some time. His career flourished, and his beautiful, gentle wife gradually softened his manner.

Until one day, he saw the portrait his wife was rumored to keep hidden.

Only then did Gu Juezhou realize in shock that the man in the portrait wasn't him.

She had only been looking at him because she was in love with his elder brother!

When he confronted Yu Man, she smiled as if it didn't matter. "Now that you know, let's divorce."

"You and he are nothing alike, except for your looks."

The proud, arrogant darling of heaven staggered.

Using the last of his self-control, he managed only to say, "If that's how it is, then from now on we have nothing to do with each other." Then he stormed away.

Not long afterward, Gu Juezhou's eldest brother, who was supposed to have died five years earlier, suddenly returned. His parents were overjoyed, and the household held a grand banquet.

But that night, Gu Juezhou stood in her way, his eyes red, and gripped her waist tightly. His voice was low and trembling. "You really don't want me anymore?"

Yu Man pried his fingers off one by one, her expression half amused and half mocking. "Second Master Gu, didn't we agree not to interfere in each other's affairs?"

#If he doesn't interfere now, she might become his sister-in-law#

Theme: As Heaven's movement is ever vigorous, a gentleman should ceaselessly strive for self-improvement.