Tying the Knot with My Archenemy

My new novel, The Two Hearts You Stir, is a groveling romance. The blurb is at the bottom.

My completed novel, Tying the Knot with My Mortal Enemy

Jiang Yue was the favored daughter of Great Xia, peerlessly beautiful and gifted in martial arts.

Her husband was Zhao Jian, Prince of Qin of Great Yan. He was as imposing as a mountain, handsome and distinguished, a gentleman praised by everyone. Yet when she was pregnant, he killed her with his own hands.

Reborn, Jiang Yue resolves to turn her fate around by taking another bride's place. But Zhao Jian comes looking for her and repeatedly tests her identity.

Knowing how perceptive he is, Jiang Yue must proceed with caution. She treats him with utmost respect in public, while secretly using his influence to win the people's affection and laying traps without his knowledge that nearly get him killed several times.

On the day her identity is exposed, Zhao Jian grips her by the throat and pins her against the hot pool wall in Yuquan Palace. “Why don't you tell me how else you plan to use me?”

“Am I not using you right now?” Jiang Yue says, sliding her arms over Zhao Jian's shoulders and catching his lips. At the same time, one hand presses the Fengfu acupoint on his neck. Beneath their sultry whispers, deadly danger lurks.

No one knows that Zhao Jian, the invincible Prince of Qin on the battlefield, has found himself utterly defeated by a woman.

In the dim military tent, Zhao Jian lowers his head. “When you entered the palace, was it because you still had some feelings for me?”

Jiang Yue grips his jaw and says coldly, “I took my elder sister's place in the marriage alliance with Great Yan so that one day, you would kneel before me like this and address me as Her Majesty the Empress.”

The scene is all too familiar to Jiang Yue. Once, Zhao Jian had brought her back to the palace as a war trophy. In this life, she has successfully rescued the emperor, and rumors say he intends to marry her to the crown prince. Once the crown prince takes the throne, she will be the most revered woman in the land.

Jiang Yue can barely spare him a glance, but the smile on her lips soon freezes. Zhao Jian, whose hands should have been bound tightly, has somehow slipped his ropes. Just as Jiang Yue expects him to strike, he suddenly goes limp and drops to one knee, his posture almost abject. He takes her fingertips and kisses away the lingering red on them, then sighs as if resigned to his fate. “As you wish... my empress...”

Female lead's perspective:

Reborn, Jiang Yue is very pleased with how she's doing. The people adore her, her future father-in-law, Emperor Yuan Jing, values her, and her future husband is fond of her. But unfortunately, she has played her part too well and become the talk of the town, drawing the attention of her mortal enemy from her past life, Prince of Qin Zhao Jian.

On the way to the capital, she carefully guards against his probing and plays along with him, only to discover that he seems to be secretly trying to win her favor. Jiang Yue thinks: ?

Before the imperial decree of marriage arrives, Jiang Yue has just finished building a rapport with her future husband when Zhao Jian sneaks into her bedroom that very night and gets a little closer to her in front of the mirror. Jiang Yue: ?

In the end, Jiang Yue falls out with him and uses his background to threaten him, hoping to strike a deal. He nods readily. “Fine by me. I have just one condition.”

“What?”

“Marry me.”

Jiang Yue: ? This isn't how the story is supposed to go! Why won't anyone follow the script?

PS:

1. Both leads have only been with each other, and the ending is happy.

2. The leads misunderstood each other in their past life. After being reborn, the female lead will uncover the truth behind her death.

3. The male lead has not been reborn.

4. Alternate setting, with an official system modeled on the Ming dynasty.

Currently serialized: The Two Hearts You Stir

A groveling romance, marriage before love, a size difference, and a male lead whose grand declarations backfire spectacularly.

Female lead's perspective:

Lin Meizhu is a concubine-born daughter of her family, yet she is betrothed to Shen Changfeng, a dissolute heir to a noble title.

On their wedding night, the jade ruyi used to lift her red veil knocks her phoenix coronet askew, and Shen Changfeng looks at her with cold disdain.

Lin Meizhu knows her status is low and doesn't dare hope for his affection. She only hopes he will gradually change his opinion of her, and asks for nothing but a peaceful, ordinary life.

At the Qionglin Banquet, deep in a bamboo grove, a beauty blocks Shen Changfeng's way and asks through tears, “How much longer are you going to stay angry with me? That night, the emperor chose the wrong person. Why didn't you say anything? When are you going to divorce her?”

Only then does Lin Meizhu learn that he married her over a careless remark. She is like a clown in a play, toyed with by them and made to look utterly ridiculous.

She has poured her heart into someone who doesn't deserve it. Lin Meizhu finally sees the truth: he has probably never liked her, and now he is cruelly stripping her of the last of her dignity and self-respect.

Her childhood friend, who has come from afar, watches the two tangled together and asks, “Is that your husband?”

Lin Meizhu looks away, her expression cool. “Not for much longer.”

Male lead's perspective:

With the Prince of Dingbei as his father and the current princess royal as his mother, Shen Changfeng has been a favorite of heaven since birth.

At a palace banquet, the old emperor, bleary-eyed with drink, chooses a notorious concubine-born daughter to be his wife.

Shen Changfeng resents it, but has no choice but to accept.

After they marry, Shen Changfeng realizes his wife is nothing like the rumors. On the contrary, she is talented and beautiful, gentle by nature, and capable of running a household. He gradually falls in love with her, and one day thinks that if he has a daughter, he hopes she will be as gentle and composed as his wife.

One afternoon, he unexpectedly learns that before her betrothal, his wife had someone she loved. That man is the newly appointed third-place scholar.

He doesn't think much of it. So what? Now her heart and eyes are full of me.

He thinks he's the real winner in life.

The winner decides to go meet his former rival, only to witness the entire scene of their tryst with his own eyes: the man's hand gripping the armrest, veins standing out; the woman's shoulder hunched low and trembling with restraint; and the two of them hastily pulling on their clothes and fleeing when they notice someone approaching.

Shen Changfeng is so furious he nearly takes flight. He grabs a broadsword and charges outside, only to run straight into Lin Meizhu.

His wife plucks a camellia from beside her bun and tucks it into his crown herself, smiling gently. “Husband, you look even more handsome than today's third-place scholar.”

After taking a deep breath, he turns the blade away and pretends nothing is wrong. “My lady, let me show you a new sword technique I've been learning.”

Should he forgive her?

Though she may have been unfaithful to him, she has never said a single bad thing about him, right? Right.

Men make mistakes, and women do too. Surely she was just acting on impulse. Right? Right.

Then he should forgive her, shouldn't he? Yes.

The day after he convinces himself, his wife asks for a divorce.

Shen Changfeng is utterly shattered.

Inspired by: Though he was unfaithful to her, he never said a single bad thing about her., The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

PS:

1. This is a one-on-one romance. The leads have only been with each other, and the ending is happy.

2. Neither lead is perfect. The male lead's biggest flaw is that he refuses to admit how he feels, for a few chapters. The female lead is rather weak at first, but will gradually find her strength. Once she awakens, she makes everyone around her jealous.

3. The male lead is a devoted husband. (Emphasis added!!!)

4. Meizhu means the pearl in a fox's mouth in a folk legend. It is said that whoever wears it will be loved by all. I use words like bright, charming, and alluring as compliments.

Theme: If you love someone, say it boldly!