She Made Him Bow

My new novel, "The Tenth Year of Hating Her", is now underway. Welcome to add it to your collection!

Forthcoming: "The Filth of Love and Pleasure". The blurb is at the very end. Please add it to your collection!

Blurb:

[Delicate Beauty x Ill-Tempered Powerful Official]

Wei Linlang's greatest regret in life was drinking that illicit cup of wine at her cousin's birthday banquet and becoming entangled with the powerful official Rong Ke.

Afterward, Rong Ke arrived in grand style and tossed a stack of banknotes down in front of everyone. "Compensation for your family."

Swallowing her humiliation, she stepped forward, her words dripping with anguish as she confronted him in public. "Some things can't be settled with money."

As she wished, he allowed her to enter the Marquis's residence, but only as a concubine.

Unwilling to accept that, she constantly tried to please him, hoping to become the Marchioness.

He made sure to humiliate her at every turn: any clothes she had touched had to be thrown away, any floor she had walked on was considered tainted, and even speaking her name was beneath him.

After being rejected time and again, she lost heart and stopped making demands, deciding to spend her days quietly in the marquis's household.

It was a grand estate, after all. She would never go without.

*

Rong Ke couldn't stand Wei Linlang, especially the faint fragrance that seemed to linger around her.

What happened between them had been half the result of his being caught by her underhanded scheme, and half the result of losing his senses over that delicate scent.

He hated losing control.

So he kept her at a distance in every way.

Until one day, his trusted aide nervously repeated what she had said while chatting in the courtyard:

"I don't care about becoming the Marchioness anymore."

At that, a memorial stamped with a red seal was flung across the room.

In the end, he lost control.

That night, he pinned her beneath the warm canopy, his movements forceful. "Didn't you say you wanted to be the Marchioness?"

Later, his teasing voice drifted through the swaying gauze curtains. "Playing hard to get? You win."

1. This is set in an imagined world. Please don't nitpick the historical details.

2. There isn't much plot. The main couple spends most of their time being lovey-dovey.

3. Happy ending.

"The Filth of Love and Pleasure"

Shen Zhaowei was the youngest daughter in her family, cherished and spoiled by everyone.

But fate was unkind, giving her a frail body that seemed as if it might break at any moment.

More than one imperial physician shook their head and sighed, saying she would not live past twenty.

One day, a limping Daoist came to the house to beg for alms. He made a quick calculation with his fingers and smiled. "Does your household have a young lady who is bedridden with a lingering illness?"

Everyone was startled and uncertain, but admitted that it did.

The Daoist then went on at length, even accurately predicting the mole on her lower back.

At last, he threw his head back and laughed. "All you need to do is marry your daughter to the young general Pei Jingzhou, and she will be free of illness and misfortune."

The Shen family was half-convinced. With nothing to lose, they sent people to make inquiries. He was a young general with a glorious record and unquestionable integrity.

It truly seemed like a fine match.

*

Pei Jingzhou had followed his father to war from childhood, making a name for himself on the battlefield.

At the age of twenty, he received an imperial summons to return to the capital.

To his surprise, an imperial decree of marriage came down from the heavens, pairing him with a woman he had never even met.

The proud young general bluntly declared that he would not marry a sickly girl and rejected the decree in public.

General Pei flew into a rage and beat him severely.

On his wedding day, Pei Jingzhou was bound hand and foot as he performed the wedding rites.

On their wedding night, he looked down at Shen Zhaowei with disdain. "You think you can tie me down? Don't flatter yourself."

*

Three nights later, the limping Daoist was beaten black and blue in the street by Shen Zhaowei's childhood friend, Xie Fuguang.

"You stupid donkey! I paid you, and you went and matched her with someone else!"

Afterward, unable to accept it, Xie Fuguang had people keep watch every day, hoping Shen and Pei would fall out and divorce, giving him a chance to swoop in.

But then...

On the third day of the tenth month, the two went boating on the lake together, laughing and chatting happily.

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, Pei Jingzhou went to Yipin Zhai himself to buy her favorite plum blossom pastries.

On the fifteenth day of the twelfth month, Pei Jingzhou gently coaxed her into taking her medicine. When she was done, he washed her feet.

Xie Fuguang was so furious that he threw the confidential reports into the brazier and cursed Pei Jingzhou as a "hypocrite."

[Bonus Scene]

One day after court, Shen Zhaowei had tea in the empress's chambers, then waited for Pei Jingzhou outside Cheng'an Gate so they could go home together.

Xie Fuguang and Pei Jingzhou came out one after the other.

She naturally slipped her arm through Pei Jingzhou's and told him about something amusing that had happened at the empress's. "Her Majesty gave me a pair of jade bracelets. They're lovely. You, "

Before she could finish, a kiss landed on her lips.

"Mm." Smiling, Pei Jingzhou glanced sideways at Xie Fuguang, whose face had turned red all the way to his neck. "My wife looks beautiful in everything."

Theme: Follow your heart