Spring Waters and a Slender Waist

Yangchun is a maidservant to the Zhou family's eldest daughter.

A maid's position comes with good perks and plenty of opportunities to pocket a little extra, but the work is exhausting and the status low.

She keeps her head down, works hard, and barely speaks, planning to run away once she's saved enough money.

When Miss Zhou marries, custom dictates that one of her maids be sent to her new husband's home for ten days to test the marriage, mainly to see if the groom is up to the task in bed.

The household is full of seductive vixens, so Madam Zhou chooses the steady, unassuming Yangchun.

As a maid, Yangchun has no say over her own fate, so she grits her teeth and agrees.

Night falls, and red candles burn bright.

The new groom, handsome and elegant, presses down over her.

On the bed, Yangchun endures it and does her best to please him.

-

The new groom is the Grand Secretary, a powerful and high-ranking official, young and accomplished.

The trial marriage goes very well. Miss Zhou marries him without a hitch, and the couple live together in perfect harmony.

Yangchun has fulfilled her duty. She wipes away her cold sweat and prepares to bundle up her things and leave.

Just then, as the groom is applying makeup to his new bride's eyebrows, he points at Yangchun. "That maid served me well enough. Keep her here as a concubine."

Yangchun is struck like lightning from a clear sky.

-

Being a concubine to the Grand Secretary is an incredible fortune. Everyone envies Yangchun for suddenly rising to prominence.

Xie Zhaoxun thinks so too. After that night, he has acquired a taste for her.

But Yangchun longs for the world beyond these walls and yearns to breathe freer air.

She will not accept this fate.

[Reading Notes]

1. Both leads are each other's first and only / wife-chasing crematorium / forced possession / status difference / happy ending.

2. A resilient, gentle, honest maidservant vs. a villainous, feudal, cold-blooded, composed, clever scholar-official (a refined scoundrel). The difficult struggle of a lowly maid in an ancient great household, focused on the small, everyday affairs of the inner residence. Written for particular tastes, centered on the push and pull of love and hate, with a chilly, drowning-at-night feeling. Similar in style to previous works such as My Heart Cannot Be Broken, The Lord Bullies Me, and Lament of the Golden Cage. Bittersweet and heart-wrenching, with a wife-chasing-into-the-crematorium plot and suffocating forced possession. These are the core themes. Don't scrutinize the plot too closely; it's here to serve the emotional push and pull. The male lead is very clever, and the female lead won't escape easily!

come rain or shine.

Completed novels about forced possession: The Lord Bullies Me, My Heart Cannot Be Broken, A Maid's Life Behind Vermilion Walls, Lament of the Golden Cage, A Fine Son and a Fine Daughter-in-Law

Pre-release: The Heavens' Wish Shines Bright.

The empress married the emperor when she was eighteen.

The empress dowager thought the young emperor would be difficult to control, and hoped a marriage alliance would give him another emotional tie.

But the emperor was astute and discerning, and loathed interference from his in-laws.

There was little affection between them after the wedding. Every night, the pillow beside the empress felt as cold as an autumn breeze.

For years, the empress endured humiliation and hardship, doing her duty as mistress of the inner palace.

Consorts bloomed in the harem, one household after another. The emperor treated them with lavish favor, but met the empress with suspicion and neglect.

When she fell gravely ill, the emperor forbade her family from visiting, saying, "I fear her relatives will usurp power."

Confined deep in the cold palace, the empress stared at her reflection in a bronze mirror, watching her youth fade away, along with her lost innocence and dreams.

The empress lay ill in bed for three bitter years before finally passing away.

After her death, the emperor wore only black, and her funeral was conducted with shocking haste. Out of sight, out of mind.

He left a comment: "A woman I have long despised," reducing years of kindness and loyalty to nothing.

A suona blared. Eight men carried her coffin. Paper money filled the palace hall, and only a few scattered sobs could be heard.

It was bitterly ironic: she had passed through the Great Ming Gate only twice in her life, once to marry and once to be buried.

When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the time before her marriage.

Given another life, she understood everything and would never again imprison herself in the palace.

Before the imperial decree selecting an empress arrived, she completed the betrothal rites with someone else.

"Imperial Brother, I've helped you marry Miss Cao. You'd better treat her well."

The emperor's brush suddenly paused. Slowly, he asked, "Then what about you?"

She smiled faintly. Her? She already had a place to go, just not in those deep palace chambers.

#Only now do I know, locked in a golden cage, I cannot sing as freely as I could in the forest#

* Wife-chasing-into-the-crematorium + forced possession

* Both leads are each other's first and only; an alternate-history setting modeled on the Ming dynasty

Blurb written on January 7, 2025

Theme: There are no desperate situations in the world, only desperate states of mind.