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My new novel, After Our Betrothal, the Young Lord Wouldn't Leave Me Alone, is currently updating. Come visit my profile and add it to your favorites, everyone! (Heart)

My completed novel, The County Magistrate's Concubine Daughter in the Northern Song, is also on my profile. Plenty to read!

[Married First, Love Later / Mutual Devotion]

[Blurb]

Princess Li Yiqing is rumored to be willful and outrageous. After getting into trouble, she leaves the palace to avoid the consequences. When she returns for the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet, the emperor bestows a marriage on her then and there. Her intended is none other than the upright young gentleman known to everyone in the capital, the newly crowned top scholar, Yuan Cizhang.

At first, no one in the capital had any faith in their marriage.

Even when the two appeared together, people said they were a couple in name only.

Li Yiqing still paid no mind to what the capital thought. But as she spent day after day with Yuan Cizhang, she realized that what she felt wasn't the shared interests she had expected before marriage. Instead, she discovered a love hidden in every tiny detail.

It was a blazing love, one that had been there for a long time. He even loved her country and its people because she did.

*

As the Crown Prince's study companion, Yuan Cizhang had long known that rumors in the capital weren't always true.

For example, the princess who seemed to do as she pleased was, in truth, more disciplined and proper than anyone else, and determined to serve the people.

And the supposedly perfect gentleman, as handsome as jade, was not as upright and flawless as the rumors said.

He had been coveting the dazzling princess for a long time.

Yuan Cizhang carefully protected their marriage, though no one believed in it. He followed close behind Li Yiqing, watching her break through obstacles again and again, daring to do what ordinary people would not.

The riverworks south of the city, the floods in Shuzhou, the palace coup in the imperial city, foreign invaders at the borders.

He watched her weather the storm, break free from the gilded cage of the imperial city, and become an eagle soaring toward mountains and seas.

Yuan Cizhang calmly thought that if he kept pretending that the love he felt for her extended to everything she loved, then a hundred years from now, the world would praise them as kindred spirits and a match for the ages.

That conviction came from her.

[Hand on heart, I promise it only gets better from here.]

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one, both leads' first love, happy ending. Radiant and clear-eyed heroine vs. devoted, possessive hero.

2. Married first, love later / He falls for her first / Slice of life / A little political intrigue / Imperial examinations / Officialdom in the provinces

3. An ancient fairy tale

4. Revising in progress, 1/210

Coming soon to my profile: After Our Betrothal, the Young Lord Wouldn't Leave Me Alone

Please add it to your favorites, mwah~ ^o^

When Lin Yunyan was seventeen, her father, Lin Wenqing, was promoted and transferred to the capital, a city crawling with powerful families, as a low-ranking sixth-rank official.

She became the daughter of a sixth-rank official in Bianjing.

Half a month after they settled in Bianjing, her father arranged a meeting and brought over the son of an old hometown friend.

The second son of the Zhou family, Zhou Tingyun, was exactly what his name suggested: an upright gentleman, graceful and refined, and a very suitable match.

On a lovely spring day, Lin Yunyan received an invitation from Madam Zhou to watch a polo match at Jinming Pond.

Halfway through the game, she suddenly sensed someone's gaze on her.

She looked down and saw a figure drawing cheers from the crowd: the young lord.

Lin Yunyan thought she must be imagining things.

But after that, she kept running into the young lord more and more often, and every time, he would end up right in front of her.

Lin Yunyan: ...What is that supposed to mean?

-

The Duke of Dingguo's household was an illustrious family with generations of aristocratic heritage.

Su Jue, the duke's only son and known as the young lord, was born to a prestigious family, noble and aloof. Barely twenty, he was peerlessly handsome and the dream lover of countless young ladies in Bianjing.

At the polo match at Jinming Pond, he noticed the figure seated in a corner of the stands at first glance.

She lowered her eyes and smiled, beautiful as a flower, her smile unmatched.

Unfortunately, she was about to become engaged to someone else.

Her figure began appearing in Su Jue's dreams. In them, she smiled at him, more radiant than the day they first met.

He finally understood the ancient verse: "A fair maiden is a prize to be won. Day and night, I long for her. But if I cannot have her, I toss and turn in misery."

Su Jue pretended to appear by chance at the polo match at Jinming Pond, the lectures on Junyi Street, the water games at Qionglin Garden...

Just seeing her once was enough.

The only problem was that, though he cared so much, he still had to act as if he didn't.

He wanted to stand by her side openly.

[Bonus Scene 1]

Su, Young Lord Jue: (complaining) You have no idea how hard and earnestly I've worked to get close to you.

Lin, Official's Daughter Yunyan: (after a moment's thought, offers advice) Then why don't you leave?

Su, Young Lord Jue: (firmly) No way!

Later, a rumor spread through Bianjing: the seemingly noble, aloof, and haughty Young Lord Su was tied up by an invisible rope. He would complain from time to time, but if Fifth Miss Lin really tried to untie him, he would be more panicked than anyone.

Much later, everyone understood: he wasn't complaining, he was showing off.

(Su Jue's thoughts: What's wrong with wanting a proper title?)

[Bonus Scene 2]

Young Lord Su came from a distinguished family and had always been the apple of everyone's eye.

But though he was used to being admired and at the center of everyone's attention, he would listen in silence and focus completely whenever Fifth Miss Lin spoke.

It was as if there were nothing in the world more deserving of his attention.

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one, happy ending, alternate-history Northern Song.

2. Updates according to the rankings for now, daily updates after signing.

3. The daughter of a low-ranking official in Bianjing vs. the only son of a ducal household.

A young lady's coming-of-age, household intrigue, and everyday romance, like a proud, jealous young lord bowing his head for love.

ᯠ _ ̫ _ ̥ ᯄ ੭

4. To be filled in.

[Completed novel, plenty to read!]

Xu Zhihe woke up one day in the Northern Song dynasty as the concubine-born daughter of the county magistrate of E Qiao County.

Her birth mother died young, and her father was weak and incompetent.

Her primary mother ignored her, while her father's concubines eyed her with ill intent.

Xu Zhihe lived cautiously, trying to get by in the household.

One day, Magistrate Xu came home drunk and declared he would give her to the county lieutenant as a concubine.

Xu Zhihe: Danger!!!

She sent a letter that very night to her maternal uncle in Shuiyang County.

Her uncle was an upright man who hit the magistrate right where it hurt, calling him a father who sold his daughter for personal gain.

Magistrate Xu was furious and abandoned the idea of making Xu Zhihe someone's concubine.

As his niece grew older with each passing year, her uncle began to worry about finding her a husband.

Xu Zhihe took him to a bookshop in town and pointed to a poor farmer's son with nothing to his name.

"I'll marry him."

[Bonus Scene]

Everyone in Bianjing knew the newly appointed Minister of Revenue doted on his wife.

Many had seen Minister Chen make a two-mile detour every day, without fail, just to bring Madam Chen the fermented milk dessert she loved.

But when no one else was around, the cool-headed, capable minister who navigated court affairs with ease would nuzzle up to Xu Zhihe like a big fluffy dog.

"Can you tell me again the story of how you chose me?"

Xu Zhihe was so flustered her breathing turned uneven. "...Does saying you had remarkable bones count?"

[Reading Guide]

1. Early on, everyday farming life in the county town; later, officialdom in Bianjing.

2. One-on-one, happy ending, married first, love later, slice of life, mutual devotion.

3. From Xu Zhihe's perspective: the dazzling transformation from a magistrate's concubine-born daughter to the matriarch of a distinguished household.

From Chen Yundu's perspective: a farmer's son rises through the imperial examinations, earns wealth and status, and reaches the pinnacle.

Premise: If it benefits the nation, I will give my life. What does fortune or misfortune matter?