His Little Nemesis

Lu Yizhou comes from a prestigious family, and is outstanding in both looks and talent. His only regret in life is that his fiancée is rather ordinary. When he learns she loves someone else, Lu Yizhou is delighted. He promises to be the one to call off their engagement and even offers to help bring the two lovers together. Yu Lanzhi is overjoyed. “Really?” There isn’t a hint of a smile on his face. “As it happens, I’m in love with your cousin too. Why don’t you help me out?” They make a verbal pact. From then on, Yu Lanzhi keeps strictly to her role and does everything she can to make Lu Yizhou more noticeable to her cousin. In return, Lu Yizhou teaches her how to win over men. But, she shoves him away in exasperation. “I never said I wanted to learn! How can you go from talking about it to actually doing it?” “Taking a small loss is a blessing. I don’t mind letting you take advantage of me.” He lowers his head and kisses her. But things soon get out of hand. Not only does he refuse to cooperate in breaking off the engagement, he repeatedly ruins her image in the eyes of the man she’s always dreamed of. Glaring at his “two-timing” fiancée, Lu Yizhou makes up his mind and carries the incorrigible girl into the layers of gauze curtains. In the lamplight, springtime passion fills the air. Afterward, he looks smug and utterly confident as he drawls, “We’ve already slept together, so we might as well make the best of it. Taking a small loss is a blessing. I don’t mind.” She slaps him. He leans in and kisses her. #####Content warnings###### Before getting engaged to the male lead, the heroine already has a crush on the second male lead. She and the male lead are honest with each other and make a pact to break off their engagement and help each other pursue the people they love. (The male lead doesn’t actually have anyone he loves.) Later, the male lead has second thoughts and goes back on his word, leading to a comical romance. 1. The male lead is pure in body and heart. The blurb is told from the heroine’s perspective. Please don’t take things out of context or use the blurb to twist the story with clever wordplay. No inappropriate writing advice, and no acting like you have the right to ruin everyone’s livelihood just because you dislike this trope. 2. The leads are an opposites-attract couple who bicker like children and try to outsmart each other. The male lead knows he’s in love and pursues her enthusiastically. The heroine doesn’t realize she’s in love, and grumbles as she embraces him. It’s a quirky mutual-pursuit story. Yes, they’re both pursuing each other. 3. There’s no catfight over a man between the heroine and Song Yinli. 4. The heroine is definitely beautiful compared with ordinary people, though she looks ordinary among great beauties. She grows into a great beauty. 5. Set in an alternate history, with plenty of the author’s own fictional details. Please don’t nitpick the history. 6. You’re free to read or leave as you please. Please don’t be hostile, short-tempered, or unreasonable. Don’t try to police the author based on your personal preferences, imagine scenes that aren’t there and attack the author over them. The author won’t cater to one person alone, but to the majority of readers. [Blurb dated December 19, 2024, revised April 20, 2025] Strongly recommending my next book, “A Thousand Spring Delights,” please add it to your collection! A heroine who disguises hate as love vs. a hero who disguises love as hate At sixteen, Cheng Fu is offered as a concubine to a sixty-year-old politician by her stepmother. On the journey to Tanzhou, the government boat capsizes. Cheng Fu clings desperately to a plank to survive, while Miss Su, who was fighting her for it, drowns. What Cheng Fu doesn’t know is that Miss Su was the fiancée of Cui Lingzhan, a powerful court official. Not long afterward, Cheng Fu is caught in Tanzhou. The prefect, eager to curry favor with his superiors and bully those beneath him, hands her over to Cui Lingzhan to do with as he pleases. Cui Lingzhan looks at the disheveled Cheng Fu and smiles faintly. “She couldn’t swim.” He looks down at her and lifts her cold chin. “But you could swim, and you had the plank. Why didn’t you help her?” Stiffly, she replies, “I tried to pull her up, but she pushed me down. I was terrified, and when I fought back, I accidentally pushed her...” Cui Lingzhan says, “She wasn’t that kind of person.” Everyone knows his fiancée was a good person, while Cheng Fu is a habitual liar. As the indirect cause of Miss Su’s death, Cheng Fu has no choice but to keep atoning and hope for his forgiveness. She serves as a slave and maid, enduring humiliation. Until one day, he suddenly grows bored of insulting her to her face and obliquely hints that she should please him in another, more private way. Cheng Fu finally understands. She has to escape this endless cage as soon as she can and live for herself for once. When Cui Lingzhan realizes he has fallen in love with the person indirectly responsible for his fiancée’s death, he plunges into despair. She’s a girl from Tanzhou who still speaks with a local accent, with almond-shaped eyes full of the will to survive. Under the pretext of making her atone, he uses despicable methods to force her to satisfy his private desires. After getting what he wants, he holds her tightly so she’ll remember his face. He is her first man. And yet, after promising to forgive her and take her as his concubine, she runs away. She had seemed so happy, leaning against him and thanking him. She’d cheerfully picked out new clothes to wear when she was officially taken as his concubine and asked him for pretty hair ornaments. She’d played him so completely that he agreed to everything and listened to her every wish. He even promised she would be more than a concubine, asking her to wait and swearing he would marry her in six months. So why did she run? He’s terrified she’ll be left with nowhere to go, bullied by others, or meet with an accident on the road, with no plank left to cling to. He searches the whole world for her. ######Reader’s guide###### 1. The male lead is pure in body and heart. He is four years older than the heroine, a cool-headed madman and a cold-faced simp. His feelings for his fiancée are half familial affection and half a sense of duty. 2. The heroine is the male lead’s first and only love. The blurb doesn’t tell the whole story. The heroine is not responsible for Miss Su’s death. 3. In the blurb, the heroine and male lead sleep together because they each want something. The male lead does not force her, and mistakenly believes it is love. 4. Set in an ancient feudal society. The characters’ reasoning and actions must fit the historical setting. Don’t take things out of context or give writing advice based on modern logic. 5. Sweet and sour, leaning sweet. Alternate history, with plenty of the author’s own fictional details. Please don’t nitpick the history. [Blurb dated April 18, 2025, screenshot saved as evidence] [Plagiarism and theft will be pursued legally.] Theme: Love yourself and believe you deserve every good thing.