A Black Lotus Cousin's Guide to Rising to the Top

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[The author writes wherever her dreams take her ⊙﹏⊙]

-> Please add my new historical romance, The Jade You Seek, to your reading list!

1.

Cui Yazhen was mild-mannered and timid. She had always obeyed her parents and followed the rules, trying to be a refined and demure young lady.

The young women of the Cui family were all talented and beautiful. She alone was inferior to everyone else in both scholarship and musical skill, and her looks earned no more than the description "pretty." No one in the Cui family thought highly of her.

Her family all mocked Cui Yazhen, saying she ought to be married off far away so she wouldn't disgrace the Cui family. Her father even wanted to marry her to a widower, but she refused. She was determined to marry the very best!

She knew that the seventh young master of the Wei family was courteous and gentle, with a soft heart. Everyone praised him as a "jade-like gentleman." Besides, his parents had died when he was young, making him the best choice for her.

After all, you have to pick the softest persimmon to squeeze, don't you?

2.

A cousin from the Wei family came to stay. She was unremarkable and dull as a block of wood, yet foolishly dreamed of winning the seventh young master's favor.

But the seventh young master was disciplined and proper. Even when she was willing to lay down her life for him, he remained unmoved.

Yazhen knew he stood high above her, silently toying with her, watching her cry, laugh, and lose her composure while he remained perfectly calm.

But who could say he wasn't the one being toyed with?

3.

Wei Xuan was exceptionally handsome, praised as "bright as willows beneath the spring moon, solemn as the breeze beneath pines."

Born into a noble clan and of exalted status, he was nevertheless free of the arrogance and debauchery common among the sons of noble families. Every word and deed of his seemed measured with a ruler, making him a model for all.

His gentle manners were only a veneer. Strip away the skin, cut into the bone, and draw the blood, and only he knew the cold indifference flowing through his veins. He followed the rules to avoid every mundane entanglement. He despised worldly society, yet was immersed in it, unable to escape.

At first, the young lady would always look up at him timidly and call him softly, "Cousin."

He, too, treated his cousin as a diversion, allowing her to make little harmless gestures so long as they stayed within the limits he had set. He knew she was scheming, foolish, and timid.

But he never expected that someone like her would be sincere in her love for him. She gradually found her way into his heart, yet he refused to admit it.

Until he saw her escape his control, determined to enter the palace and become an imperial consort. The charming young woman lifted the corners of her lips, her red lips parting and closing as she said, "Cousin, you really are so incredibly boring. I've been playing you from beginning to end."

In an instant, his eyes darkened. He snapped the wooden hairpin hidden in his sleeve, the birthday gift he had carved for her with his own hands.

"Leave? Zhen Niang, don't even dream of it."

It turned out that, in front of her, he had long since willingly put on the shackles and bared his neck to the blade.

PS:

1. One man and one woman, exclusive pairing.

2. The heroine grows over time, little by little.

3. The hero eats his words, and in the end faces a long road to win her back.

------------- Upcoming Novel -----------------

The Jade You Seek, please add it to your reading list

Her husband, who had married into her family, was transferred back to the capital, and Xue Yuqing went with him, bringing their daughter along.

Her husband was kind and ambitious, and the two lived in perfect harmony, their days sweet as honey.

She thought their life would go on peacefully like this,

until, at a palace banquet, she met the man who was supposed to be her daughter's dead father.

Zhao Jin, her childhood friend and cousin who had once lived with her family.

Back then, she had deliberately seduced him, then cruelly abandoned him when he was down, marrying someone else instead.

Now he sat high in the halls of power, the most influential minister in the empire.

*

Her husband was promoted, and her mother-in-law despised Yuqing for being a merchant's daughter.

She thought of taking a concubine for her son, and was then coaxed into secretly accepting bribes and lending money at exorbitant interest.

When it all came to light, the whole family was implicated.

With nowhere else to turn, Yuqing deliberately set her sights on the man seated above them all.

In the pouring rain, she paid a nighttime visit to the Zhao residence.

Inside a secret chamber,

Zhao Jin looked down at the woman kneeling on the floor, head bowed, tears falling, her face pale.

The still-young and beautiful Madam Lian had come to him, pleading for the sake of her husband and daughter.

She said softly, "Cousin, please save me."

He reached out and gripped her soft chin, stroking her jade-like cheek. His dark, brooding gaze traveled slowly across her pale face.

Zhao Jin understood her, and hated her with all his heart.

So he leaned close to her ear, his voice casual but laced with cruelty.

"Duan Duan, it's only at times like this that you remember me, your cousin."

"Whatever you want, you'll have to pay a price for it."

*

Though Zhao Jin stood at the pinnacle of power, the place beside him had always remained empty.

Lately, however, rumors of romance had spread again and again.

People said there was a new woman by his side, and everyone in the capital speculated about her identity.

Until, at a banquet, someone saw with their own eyes the usually cold Zhao Jin smiling as he doted on Madam Lian, his former lover, with the utmost tenderness.

They were so loving, so perfectly matched.

And the woman whose face glowed with happiness and tenderness

had hands trembling beneath the table.

"She may be delicate and slender, but she is the one in control. She can tempt him into baring his neck to the blade and willingly surrendering his soul without even looking up."

#False gentleness, true cold-hearted self-interest VS obsessive, ruthless man hopelessly in love#

PS:

1. The heroine is not a virgin, the hero is. The child is the hero's.

2. The heroine is cold-hearted, not truly good and kind. The hero is a total lunatic who adores her.

3. Nothing happens between the heroine and the hero while she is still married to the second male lead.

4. Coercive pursuit (highly emphasized!!!!)

5. Fictional setting, with countless invented details. Everything serves the romance.

(Inspiration: 2024.9.24)

Theme: Loving yourself is the best choice