Coveting Spring

A plump, silly beauty x a cold, traditional patriarchal big shot

Jing Yao was born charming and voluptuous. When she came of age, her stepmother, eager to secure a future for her son, turned around and sent her to become a concubine to the husband of her beloved cousin's younger sister.

She was honest and timid. Once she entered the household, her voluptuous figure won her favor, but it also aroused the madam's jealousy. She was constantly tormented and put down, and what made her most uneasy was that the madam often went to complain about her to her cousin.

Her cousin, He Anting, was the Grand Secretary, a man of integrity and virtue, as pure as jade. He had always despised women with swaying waists and flirtatious, bashful eyes, the sort who looked sure to disrupt a household.

By coincidence, Jing Yao had just such a face.

He Anting disliked her intensely, so he used the opportunity of reprimanding his brother-in-law to warn her: "Seduce your master and make him favor a concubine over his wife, and you bring shame upon the family. You'd better know your place."

Under the contemptuous gazes of the crowd, she felt mortified and shed a tear of grievance.

She was simply born with this face. How could she be blamed for that?

From then on, she did her best to stay far away from her cousin, so she wouldn't have to deal with his disapproval.

Until the heir took her to a spring hunt. Unlucky as ever, she entered the wrong room and accidentally came upon her cousin after he had been drugged. His scorching breath suddenly brushed her ear...

After one wild night, she was relieved that He Anting didn't know who she was. Knowing he hated her, she left sensibly and hid far away, pretending the night's events had never happened.

But He Anting was determined to search every inch of the land for the woman from that night.

On the day of the family banquet, the Earl of Lingyun's residence was filled with celebration, because Jing Yao was pregnant.

She, however, forced a smile and guarded her belly with a pale, guilty look.

Her cousin, who had always treated her with cold disdain, fixed his deep gaze on her and even thoughtfully added a cushion for her.

In the sultry darkness, whispers and the sound of a struggle came from the rockery in the earl's residence.

He Anting's tall figure was imposing. Jing Yao looked around in alarm, wary of his approach. "Don't make things up. This child has nothing to do with you."

He Anting pressed closer, step by step. Usually, he was the very soul of restraint, but now his words were intimate and improper: "Even if the child has nothing to do with me, it doesn't matter. I'd make a better father than the heir. Why not consider me, Yao Yao?"

Blurb written on January 9, 2025, and archived.

Reader's guide:

○ The heroine is not a virgin, while the hero is. He is older. At the start, the heroine is the second male lead's bedchamber attendant, with no concubine contract and no formal relationship with him.

○ Angsty push and pull, face-slapping, pregnancy before love, forced marriage and possessive pursuit, and an older man discovering love late.

○ The heroine has a very shrewd-looking face, but is actually naive and clueless.

○ Everything in the plot serves the romance.

Upcoming novel: After Being Reborn, I Find My Husband Is Actually My Brother-in-Law

A traditional, abstinent family patriarch x a delicate, voluptuous beauty

On the seventh day after her husband's death, Yin Yutan woke up and was shocked to find herself in bed with her husband's elder brother, her body covered in marks that made it clear what had happened.

Her brother-in-law said she could either become his or join her husband in death. After enduring her mother-in-law's torment, the timid Yin Yutan clung to his neck.

For the next fifteen years, Xiao Tingshu spoiled her like a precious jewel, indulging her every whim. The only strange thing was that he wouldn't let her go out alone or even smile at another man, not even a servant boy.

But after a brush with death, she woke again in the year she turned eighteen.

Having lived a second life, she naturally assumed Xiao Tingshu had returned to the past with her.

In the springtime covered walkway, two figures approached. Yin Yutan saw no one but her husband.

"Husband." Her voice trembled as she threw herself at him.

But Xiao Tingshu frowned and swiftly dodged to the side. Yin Yutan fell straight into the grass, her hair in disarray and her clothes covered in mud.

The Xiao Tingshu who had always called her "sweetheart" in a gentle voice was not only cold and distant, but his eyes also held a trace of shock and disgust.

"Sister-in-law, you've mistaken me for someone else."

Yin Yutan went pale, and what he said next made her feel as if she'd fallen into hell.

"You are married to my third brother. I hope you'll watch what you say and do from now on, and never behave in such an improper, disgraceful way again."

As he spoke, a slender, elegant woman stood beside him, a stark contrast to Yin Yutan's voluptuous, seductive beauty. After delivering his warning, Xiao Tingshu walked away with the woman at his side.

Only then did Yin Yutan understand.

Xiao Tingshu, who was still her brother-in-law, had not been reborn with her. And he even had a fiancee.

As head of the Lanling Xiao clan, Xiao Tingshu had always worked tirelessly and followed the rules. If nothing unexpected happened, he would marry the fiancee chosen for him, and the two would treat each other with respect and work together through life.

But one day, his younger brother's wife came to him and said a string of incomprehensible things.

Xiao Tingshu already disliked her. He thought she was seductive and frivolous, a woman who never took care of proper matters. He believed that having such a woman as his wife would one day drag his younger brother down.

After this, he found her even more irritating and wanted nothing more than to keep his distance.

Until one day, he thought he must be mad. He wanted to commit the most shameful of acts: kill his younger brother and take his wife.

Reader's guide:

The heroine is delicate, cries easily, and is fragile. The hero dislikes her at first, then gets his comeuppance.

The heroine is not a virgin, while the hero is. In his previous life, the hero took her by force, but she was too clueless to realize it.

The second male lead survives in the second life and competes with the hero for the heroine.

The hero's pursuit of his wife after a breakdown is a slow burn, and he gradually remembers his previous life.

Premise: Don't judge people by their appearance.