A Secret Fragrance

1.

Qin Xiangxu is a royal scion who was lost outside the palace and suffered amnesia after a terrifying ordeal.

So when her parents finally found their daughter, the emperor and empress doted on her all the more, indulging her until she became willful and spoiled.

Everyone in the capital knew that Princess Heyang was the most beautiful woman in the world, and had the worst temper to match.

Yet this very woman became engaged to Shen Hezhi, the all-powerful chancellor.

2.

Shen Hezhi was cold-hearted and proud, and would rather defy an imperial decree than marry a princess.

Qin Xiangxu was not surprised by this outcome.

What truly surprised her was this:

One snowy year, she ran into Shen Hezhi outside the princess's residence.

At the time, he was holding his young daughter, snow piled on his shoulders, his figure lonely and desolate.

Qin Xiangxu sneered coldly, "Since the Chancellor has no wish to accept the engagement, why pretend to be pitiful?"

She turned to leave, but a hand, red with cold, stubbornly tugged at her sleeve.

The aloof, distant man of the past lowered his eyes and spoke softly:

"My daughter and I are alone in the world. I beg the princess for a little compassion."

"...Is that not allowed?"

Qin Xiangxu gazed at his face, as lovely as sculpted snow and jade.

Well, it seemed... perhaps she could make an exception.

3.

After his wife died, Shen Hezhi became a different person.

He pursued fame and power, grew cold and ruthless, and slaughtered the bandits who had ruined his family.

But just then, the emperor suddenly issued an imperial decree arranging a marriage for him.

He naturally refused.

As he left the palace after rejecting the match,

a woman of celestial beauty and unparalleled grace passed by his side.

Shen Hezhi knew her well.

Because she was his first wife:

Yangyang.

Screenshot archived on 2024.6.4

Next book: "Seizing My Elder Brother's Wife"

A gentle, airheaded beauty and a scheming, tea-green male interloper

1.

Tong Shuang and Chu Mingzhen had been married for years, perfectly in tune and deeply in love. Everyone in Mingcheng knew them as an affectionate couple.

One day, people from the Chu family in the capital came to recognize their kin. Only then did she learn that her husband was the illegitimate eldest son of the prestigious Chu clan, who had been lost outside the family years ago.

Thus, she went from being a country girl to the eldest daughter-in-law of a noble family.

The rules of an aristocratic clan were numerous, and being the eldest daughter-in-law was no easy task. She had to study the capital's etiquette every day and watch every word and action.

Tong Shuang could endure these constraints. What she truly could not stand was the second uncle who had suddenly appeared in her life, Chu Zhiyi.

2.

Chu Zhiyi was handsome and refined. As a legitimate son of the Chu family, he had mastered the political arena at a young age. The world praised his upright character and called him the capital's finest talent.

But Tong Shuang disliked him, because this noble young master, who seemed as pure as a fresh breeze and bright moon to outsiders, always regarded her and her husband as thorns in his side. He often watched her with a gloomy gaze and constantly made things difficult for her husband.

3.

Bound by the glory of the Chu clan, Chu Zhiyi had devoted himself to the classics and personally managed the family's affairs since childhood. He knew nothing of tenderness or warmth, and poured all his energy into the rise and fall of his family.

He had lived this way for twenty years.

Then, in the winter of the third year of Chong'an, his elder brother, who had been lost outside the family, returned home with his wife.

Only then did Chu Zhiyi first understand, through Tong Shuang, what warmth was.

4.

His elder brother had been raised in the fields and was inferior to him in learning, looks, and physique.

What right did he have to marry such a wonderful woman?

His sister-in-law deserved to marry someone better.

So if his elder brother would not give her up,

then he would take her.

Theme: You must strive for happiness with your own two hands.