Gathering Her Fragrant Charm

Coming soon: The Beloved on His Lap. A lofty beauty claims her by fair means or foul. Blurb at the bottom, please add it to your reading list.

The Right Chancellor's household welcomed back their legitimate daughter, who had been missing for years. With a slender waist, cloud-like hair, phoenix eyes, and crimson lips, Chu was a peerlessly gorgeous beauty.

Yet she had a fiery temperament: one could admire her from afar, but not presume to offend her. Countless people wondered who would manage to pluck this thorny flower.

Later, the legitimate daughter had occasion to meet the emperor. When she left the hall, her red lips were bruised, as if someone had bitten them with sharp teeth.

Asked about it, she calmly explained, "I bumped them by accident."

Everyone believed her. After all, who didn't know that the current Son of Heaven was wise, benevolent, and elegant, and always gentle and courteous toward women? Surely he would never bite anyone.

On the day the Son of Heaven held a grand selection of palace women, the young ladies wandered through the garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility. No one noticed that, inside a pavilion just beyond the wall, the legitimate daughter's robe had come undone and the emperor had bitten her snow-white shoulder until it bled.

Watching the damp redness at the corners of her eyes, the emperor smiled and traced her crimson lips with his jade-white fingers. "Do you remember how you seduced me back then?"

No one knew that the legitimate daughter, who had once wandered the countryside, and the emperor, the supreme ruler of the realm, had been childhood sweethearts.

She had seduced him, then cruelly abandoned him, leaving him to spend every day and night, even in his dreams, crazed with the desire to find her, take revenge on her, torment her, and have his way with her.

Later, in the Hall of Supreme Harmony,

the legitimate daughter kicked away the emperor's hand as it reached for her and threw a fit in irritation.

The emperor gently stroked her flat belly and coaxed her, "Bear me another child, and I'll give you anything you want."

Reader's guide:

1. The blurb doesn't tell the whole story. Includes claiming her by fair means or foul, some household intrigue, and a pursuit of his wife, but it won't be too angsty. Also includes healing elements, with a 50/50 balance of sweet and sour.

2. The male lead has a harem, but there's a reason for it; he loves only the female lead. The female lead rises from a low-ranking consort to empress. Both leads are each other's first love and are virgins.

Coming soon: The Beloved on His Lap, the awkward daily life of an uncle and nephew turned husband and wife / a lofty beauty claims her by fair means or foul

The marriage between Jiang Xuezhi and Pei Xun was one of necessity and compromise.

The one she truly loved, the man she was supposed to marry, was Pei Xun's nephew, Pei Cen. But on the wedding day, the groom who was supposed to come for her never showed. After the elders of both families discussed the matter, Jiang Xuezhi's bridal sedan was carried into Pei Xun's courtyard instead.

Jiang Xuezhi admired bright, approachable young men like Pei Cen. Pei Xun, on the other hand, held a high position, was aloof and imposing, and was a full cycle of the zodiac older than her.

Jiang Xuezhi feared him.

On their wedding night, Jiang Xuezhi wept until her eyes were red, unable to imagine what her future would hold.

Then the man who had always kept his distance from women gazed quietly at her for a long time. Tentatively, as if afraid he might break something, he gently kissed her crimson lips.

*

When Pei Xun was seven, he found a baby rabbit. It was soft, white, gentle, and adorable, but his commandery princess mother killed it right in front of him. For years afterward, Pei Xun found nothing else he liked.

Until, at twenty-nine, he met another "rabbit."

At the time, the rabbit was crying over a cat that had been injured. When she saw him, her almond eyes brimmed with tears and the corners of her eyes were red and damp. She was clearly afraid of him, yet still called him timidly and politely, "Th... Third Uncle."

Pei Xun suddenly felt the urge to pick up this rabbit again, hide her in his palm, and never let anyone else lay a finger on her.

Reader's guide: The female lead calls him Third Uncle, following the male supporting character's example. The male supporting character has serious flaws in how he conducts himself; the male lead makes some use of underhanded tactics. Includes a struggle between uncle and nephew, but this is a sweet one-on-one romance.

Theme: Clearing up misunderstandings, dispelling hatred, and finding love and light in the world