Delicate Beauty, Jade-Like Features

Next up: This Child Isn’t Absolutely Necessary. Please add it to your reading list :) Chu Yumao lost her parents as a child and was raised in the Prince of Nanyang’s estate. She is engaged to the heir of Nanyang. Unfortunately, Zhao Rang has no affection for the fiancée his elders forced on him. Chu Yumao doesn’t mind. So many women in the world are smitten with Zhao Rang that one less makes no difference. She only wants a place where she can settle down for a while. She doesn’t care who she is engaged to. To stay at the Prince of Nanyang’s estate, she does her best to be the future heir’s perfect fiancée and secretly saves money so she can leave one day. When she finally manages to leave, Chu Yumao suddenly realizes that she may have driven the proud, noble heir to the brink of madness. - Zhao Rang, heir to the Prince of Nanyang, comes from a distinguished family. Refined and self-disciplined, courteous and proper, he is a snow-capped peak and a gentleman among men, the ideal husband in the eyes of the capital’s women. Zhao Rang has known since childhood that he has a fiancée. As a boy, he paid her little mind. She was there, but she hardly mattered. Yet whenever she looked up at him, her beautiful face would fill his view, his fingertips would tremble beyond his control, and his heart would race. He would hurriedly look away, disliking how she made him lose control. Eventually, he came to terms with the fact that he loved her more than life, treasured her like a jewel, and cherished her as he did himself. Then he discovered that she had been planning to leave all along! Zhao Rang thinks that if the rules of society and their affection can’t keep her by his side, he will cast aside everything useless and follow his heart. Even losing control can be a way to get what he wants. PS: 1. The dynasty is fictional, and very loosely based on anything real. 2. The hero loves her but doesn’t realize it, insists on keeping up appearances, and never speaks his mind. He deserves to have his wife misunderstand him and think he doesn’t love her. 2. Domestic life and a fairly slow start. ** Next up, another historical marriage-before-love story: This Child Isn’t Absolutely Necessary. Please add it to your reading list :) Xu Xiayu was born ill and is a celebrated fragile beauty. Marriage would be unwise, and she is unlikely to have children. She has already made peace with the idea of remaining a spinster in her parents’ home for the rest of her life. Then one day, the old emperor makes an ill-considered match and orders her to marry Prince Yan, who commands the imperial army. The day before the wedding, Xu Xiayu has a dream and discovers that she is the sickly, arrogant legitimate elder sister in a storybook. After marriage, she brings her half-sister into her household to secure her position, hoping to use her as a surrogate and raise her child as the legitimate heir. In the end, she becomes consumed by jealousy as her half-sister and husband grow close, and dies a tragic death. When she wakes, Xu Xiayu thinks it over and decides that having a child isn’t absolutely necessary. ** Prince Yan Ji Liao’s mother was a palace maid who washed feet. Though he was a prince, he grew up in poverty and was treated with contempt. When he returns from the frontier with five hundred thousand troops under his command, he becomes the prince with the best chance of claiming the throne. Even the crown prince has to give way to him. To curb his power, the old emperor deliberately arranges his marriage to a woman rumored to be unable to bear children. Ji Liao is about to refuse, but when he sees the woman chosen for him, he decides the match might be acceptable. If they can’t have children, they can adopt a few. He has so many brothers that he can keep a few around specifically to father children. How many could he possibly want? After the wedding, Ji Liao starts assessing his more than twenty brothers to see which would make suitable fathers. The unsuitable ones can be sent to join the late emperor. The princes: (▼皿▼#) Don’t you think you’re going too far?! PS: The hero is decisive and ruthless, a rough man who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful, frail heroine. He sees her as a celestial maiden, pure and untouched, and thinks she should remain as immaculate as one. How could she be expected to bear children like an ordinary woman? Theme: Love means honesty and respect, and loving yourself, too.