The Captive Beauty of a Chancellor (GB)

* (Please check out my new novel.) Six years ago, she was a young hostage from Pingyang, disguised as a boy. Low-born and powerless, she endured scorn at every turn.

Six years later, she rode across the Central Plains at the head of an army, marching on the capital and driving the dynasty's ruler into a panicked flight, where he could only cling to a miserable existence.

Even the most esteemed chancellor of Great Chu was now nothing more than her prisoner.

She raised the chancellor's chin with her riding crop, then brushed a hand, roughened by calluses, over the young man's handsome features.

Chu Yan gazed at her former teacher and longtime enemy, smiling as she praised him. "What a peerless beauty you are, you pathetic stray with nowhere left to go."

That very night, a frail beauty with the grace of rosy clouds and the charm of moonlight, coughing blood in the wind, appeared in the tent of the Heir of Yan. Day after day, they shared a bed and lived side by side.

The beauty had fallen into the mud, on the brink of death, but his spirit remained unbroken, and his foolish loyalty unchanged.

Chu Yan savored the old hatred she had nursed for years, then slowly shook her head with a sigh. "Xun Qingchen, your bones are still as hard as ever."

"But it doesn't matter. I'll teach you properly how to bow your head to me and beg at my feet."

*

Everyone said that Chancellor Xun had died young, and that it was a great shame.

No one knew that the chancellor praised by the world as a phoenix among men had been stripped of his name and imprisoned in Chu Yan's rear courtyard.

Through countless long nights, the serene and noble Chancellor Xun would lower his eyes, tears in his gaze, and look back on the student he had once cherished, his heart full of sorrow.

Xun Qingchen had never regretted anything he did. He never imagined that one day he would tenderly touch her scars, share in her pain, and pray that time could turn back.

"Let me help you." He nuzzled Chu Yan's hand ingratiatingly. "Your Highness, please grant me the honor of serving you."

I will be the sharpest blade in your hand.

[Reading Guide]: Gender-bender, conventional worldbuilding; bittersweet romance, love and hate entwined, with a slightly unhinged heroine early on; a touch of the heroine attracting many admirers. Besides the male lead, other male characters also fall for her.

[★Important] This is a personal indulgence project. If it's not for you, please leave in time (bows).

----Coming Soon----

My Chancellor [Matriarchy]

[An outwardly gentle but secretly ruthless, long-suffering emperor x an imposing chancellor who disguises himself as a woman]

The first time Qi Yunzhao saw Chancellor Qiu, whom the palace staff called a peerless genius and the greatest talent of the age, was in the cold palace where she had lived since childhood. It was the thirteenth year of Jingning. The emperor was gravely ill, the princes staged a coup, and the capital ran red with blood.

The chancellor, whose power overshadowed the court, walked through the endless falling leaves and stopped before her. His face was as lovely as rouge, his figure as straight as bamboo. His elaborate crimson court robes were perfectly arranged, without a single wrinkle.

"Your servant, Qiu Ningxue, respectfully invites Your Highness to ascend the throne."

At the time, she thought: This chancellor is truly beautiful, even more so when he bows his head.

...For many years afterward, the beautiful Chancellor Qiu stood beside her like a mountain. He was dignified and solemn, guided by propriety in all he did, noble as jade and renowned for his virtue.

Yet in the end, that proud and unyielding sword bent inch by inch, becoming tender as silk as he nestled in her arms.

"The covers are cold, and sleep won't come. My sovereign... could you stay with me tonight?"

Qi Yunzhao had once been grateful to him, revered him, suspected him, and feared him. In the end, it all became a heart full of tenderness.

She loved his noble spirit and pitied his chronic illness, his lonely past, and the fact that he had no one to rely on.

*

When Qiu Ningxue was framed by political enemies and thrown in prison, he had already resigned himself to having his sex exposed and dying by suicide.

Instead, the little emperor who had always been wary of him worked tirelessly on his behalf, preserving his reputation, saving his life, and restoring his position.

To repay the sovereign's favor, I would take up my jade-inlaid sword and die for her.

He picked up the pieces of his scattered heart and painstakingly put them together, intending to become a candle and burn through his final hours of light.

But an accident forced him into the little emperor's bed, and after that... he conceived.

The little emperor stood nearby, fidgeting as she watched him and spoke carefully. "Perhaps... Chancellor, you should have the child."

Qiu Ningxue nodded as if in a trance.

Until then, he had never imagined that one day he would willingly bear a child for someone else.

Nor had he ever imagined that he would lower himself to pursue a ruler's elusive love.

He looked up to her, obeyed her, and craved her tender affection. He feared her capriciousness, but once he was in too deep, he could not pull himself free.

Theme: Love requires mutual understanding.