The Alluring Maidservant

A Zhen is a mute girl. Her family is poor, and her older brother can't afford to travel to the capital to sit for the imperial exams, so her mother sells her to a local matchmaker for twenty taels of silver.

Just then, Prince Ning is looking for a concubine. A Zhen's birth horoscope proves compatible, and she is chosen to enter his household.

Prince Ning is the youngest brother of the current emperor. Proud and handsome, he spent three years guarding the border and won many great military honors. He is the dream lover of countless noble young women in the capital.

On the day she enters his household, Prince Ning casually curls a finger and picks her from among five candidates.

Only because she is mute and cannot speak. The prince likes peace and quiet.

On their wedding night, he takes her without mercy, doing whatever he pleases. The next day, right in front of her, he wrings a golden oriole's neck.

"A Zhen, you're just like this bird." His bloodstained fingers close around her neck. With a smile and a cold, bloodthirsty voice, he says, "Even your cries sound just like its chirping."

A Zhen lowers her head in mortification and discomfort, knowing he's mocking the sound she made when he abused her the night before, like a bird chirping on the brink of death.

She also knows that to him, she's nothing but a plaything whose neck he can snap whenever he wants.

He despises her for being mute and lowborn, yet he has boundless stamina and endless tricks in bed, relentlessly wearing her down.

"You're just a little mute. Don't think I like you." That night, he grips her neck again, his body burning hot even as his voice remains cold.

A Zhen swallows all her grievances and meekly submits to him, hoping that if she bears him a son one day, he'll let her go.

She asks for so little. She only hopes to break out of her cage like a bird and regain her freedom.

A year later, A Zhen finally gives birth to a son. The Dowager Princess is delighted and wants to promote her to concubine.

At the same time, an imperial decree arrives. The emperor personally arranges a marriage for Prince Ning, matching him with the legitimate daughter of the current chancellor. She is famed throughout the realm for her beauty and talent, and everyone agrees it is an excellent match.

Watching the whole household bustle with preparations to welcome the new bride, A Zhen's eyes flicker with sadness. She returns to her room and quietly packs her little bundle.

Her older brother has passed the imperial exam and secured a minor official post in the capital. With the money he's saved, he's come to buy her freedom.

As the two of them kneel and beg together, Prince Ning's gaze turns cold. He snaps the golden hairpin he carefully chose for her, hidden in his sleeve.

How ridiculous. She's just a vulgar mute. Why should he miss her?

The next time he sees her, she's smiling brightly and skipping along beside a poor physician, chattering away like a little bird.

So this is what her voice sounds like.

Truly like the golden oriole whose neck he broke: clear and fragile.

Watching the two of them, his eyes darken with malice as his hand slowly settles on the sword at his waist.

A loveless, unhinged prince x a gentle, self-reliant heroine

Coercive romance, groveling redemption, both leads are virgins, HE. The male lead will be a real jerk for a while, so be warned if that's not your thing.

Please add my upcoming story, The Beloved Maid, to your reading list:

Easygoing, optimistic, resilient, piglet-like maid x unhinged, loveless, furiously raging prince

A Tang is the daughter of a merchant in the capital. After her family falls on hard times, her stepmother sells her to Prince Jin's household, where she becomes a low-ranking maid.

Because she is pretty and delicate-looking, the other maids and servants ostracize her. She doesn't get enough to eat or wear, and is made to do the hardest work.

A Tang is easygoing and optimistic by nature. She silently bears these grievances, with only one hope: that the childhood friend she loves will pass the imperial exams and come buy her freedom.

But one night, the prince is ambushed in the palace and drugged with an aphrodisiac. When he returns to his household and happens to see her passing by, he drags her to a rockery without a word and takes her innocence.

Afterward, the prince tosses her a bag of silver ingots in disgust and tells her to get as far away as possible and stop showing her face.

A Tang is an honest girl. With red-rimmed eyes, she finds her fiance and tells him she is no longer a virgin.

He gently pats the back of her hand and says he doesn't care about her chastity, that he loves her for who she is. But as she bows her head and wipes away her tears, his eyes greedily sweep over the large bag of silver ingots.

Joy rises in A Tang's heart. Reassured, she returns to the prince's household and keeps her head down, carefully enduring each day. She only has to wait for her contract to expire in six months, then she can leave and live happily ever after with the man she loves.

*

Prince Jin, Zhao Jingrui, is the emperor's younger brother. Born brave and strong, he has extraordinary strength. At fourteen, he led an army north to drive out the Turks, then guarded the frontier for five years and earned great military honors. No one in the army can match his prestige.

But a month after his older brother ascends the throne, an imperial decree lures him back to the capital and strips him of his military authority. He is condemned to spend the rest of his life there, forbidden to cross the capital region's boundary markers, and forced to become an idle prince who indulges in pleasure.

Seven years pass in the blink of an eye. The gilded cage not only confines his body and mind, but wears down his will. The man who once longed for freedom grows increasingly volatile and unhinged.

He spends fortunes in brothels and parties all night, living as outrageously as he can. He drags condemned prisoners out of the dungeons, lines them up, and uses them as archery targets for his guards.

Yet day after day of wild excess cannot soothe the restlessness and frustration inside him, until one day he catches a little sparrow: dusty gray, slow-moving, but astonishingly tenacious.

He bullies and teases her, pinning her down again and again, watching her clumsily get back up, dust herself off, and keep trudging through life in silence, as though nothing could defeat her.

Her optimism and refusal to yield make him furious. He grows even more tyrannical, taking everything from her, until at last he breaks her wings with his own hands.

All he wants is for her to stay by his side.

Until she throws herself against a pillar, resolute and without a trace of hesitation, blood spraying everywhere.

"Now will you finally let me go...?"

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