After Flirting with a Powerful Father and Son from an Enemy Kingdom

[A cool, alluring beauty x a scheming old fox vs. a sincere young heir] [Possessive pursuit / Regret and redemption / Father-son rivalry]

When her country fell overnight, Yan Xirui went from a princess high above everyone else to a prisoner.

To find a chance of survival in this den of wolves, she had no choice but to bow her head to the Heir of Prince Yin, the young and powerful official, and beg him to "show her mercy."

Deep in the night, every candle in the tent was extinguished. In the pitch-black darkness, only the sound of bathing water and a man putting on his clothes could be heard.

Wearing a dance costume from a foreign land, Yan Xirui entered alone, intending to feign affection, then kill him to vent her hatred over the fall of her country.

She wrapped her arms around the man's strong waist from behind, her cold little face pressed tightly to his back. In a tender, pleading voice, she murmured, "Rui Niang begs you to show mercy..."

After a few soft words and tender caresses, the man in her arms turned around in the dark, took her by the wrist, and swept her into his arms, carrying her toward the bed.

Thunder rumbled in the winter sky as the red curtains swayed with passion. At the last moment, Yan Xirui tried to draw the dagger hidden in her sleeve and stab him. But the instant she met those eagle-sharp eyes, her legs gave way and cold sweat ran down her body.

She had mistaken him for someone else.

When her plan was exposed, she tried to bite through her tongue and kill herself. But the man kissed her again, smiling with seasoned cunning. "You've got some tricks. No wonder Xier treats you differently."

Prince Yin, Lin Chenyuan, was a powerful official who inspired terror wherever he went. Ruthless and skilled in political maneuvering, he grew more ambitious as he entered his thirties, sidelining the emperor and governing as regent.

His moody concubines had titles in name only and never dared approach him, so by the age of thirty, his only son was the heir, Lin Ningxi.

But power was intoxicating, and father and son could not escape suspicion. They were cordial on the surface but at odds beneath it.

Looking at the young woman on the bed, fighting desperately to survive, he decided to send her to the heir's bedside as a spy.

The girl was beautiful, but still inexperienced and naive, so he had to teach her himself how to ride and shoot, how to defend herself with martial arts, how to beguile others, how to kiss, and how to...

When the time was right, everything went as Lin Chenyuan had hoped. His heir came to love Rui Niang more than life itself. The two were inseparable and as affectionate as husband and wife.

The girl Lin Chenyuan had trained with his own hands had become his finest chess piece.

Lin Chenyuan had thought that he only meant to use a woman from a conquered country, and that he would never develop improper feelings for an empty-headed beauty in a vase.

Until one ordinary day, after Lin Chenyuan summoned Yan Xirui again and again, the young woman kept making excuses that she was ill.

Unable to accept it, he became bewitched and began powdering and dressing himself up before going in person to the heir's residence to see her.

But after months apart, he had not expected the once gentle, obedient girl to have grown a rebellious streak.

For the first time, she refused his kiss and advances. "I've given you what you wanted. From now on, I only want to live a good life with him. There's no need for us to meet in secret again. Please leave, Your Highness."

Watching the young woman's resolute retreating figure, Lin Chenyuan clenched his fist.

In the first year of Chengping, Prince Yin overthrew the imperial court. Lin Chenyuan ascended the throne and appointed his only son, Lin Ningxi, Crown Prince.

As for his son's concubine, the Yan woman, he had no choice but to use a faked death as an excuse to force her to assume a new identity and snatch her away from the Crown Prince.

On the day of the investiture ceremony, news suddenly came from Weiyang Palace that Yan, the soon-to-be empress, had taken her own life for love.

Night after night, he dreamed of her and longed for her until he fell ill. Even a ridiculous ritual to summon her spirit at the cost of his own life could not bring the young woman back.

But fate had mercy, and finally reunited the lovers.

Disguised as an ordinary man on an inspection tour, Lin Chenyuan saw the woman who had not remarried at a nunnery.

Beneath a plum tree, in a meditation room filled with the lingering sound of Buddhist chants, he saw the young woman dressed as a nun, hurriedly binding her heavily swollen belly with a strip of white silk.

He gave a cold laugh, understanding that everything Yan Xirui had done was an attempt to escape him.

"...I'm carrying the Crown Prince's posthumous child. For the sake of your grandchild, Your Majesty, please don't go any further."

Seeing the clumsy, heavily pregnant girl in his arms look up at him through her tears and beg for mercy, he gently stroked her belly and sneered. "Your grandchild? Rui, how can you be so sure you're carrying a grandson, rather than my child?"

From then on, the sound of a woman's sobs and the iron-blooded emperor's patient coaxing could be heard day and night in the Jiaofang Palace...

Reading Guide:

1. Father-son rivalry, with the father taking his son's love. Note: The heroine is only the second male lead's maid and is not related to him in any way. At the end of the blurb, she has simply lost her memory.

2. The older man is a real dog and is not sexually inexperienced. He will forcibly pursue the heroine. Don't read if that's a dealbreaker. The younger man is sexually inexperienced.

3. A tragic love story, an old-school melodramatic romance, and not a story about a strong, independent heroine.

"Here's a preview of an upcoming novel"

[Gentle, face-blind heroine x scheming nobleman / devoted husband] [Twin brothers / stealing someone's partner / 1v2 rivalry for her affections / regret and redemption / possessive pursuit]

After coming of age, Su Taoxi married the man she had loved since she was young, Xie Chengxuan, the second son of the Marquis of Pingyang.

After their wedding, they treated each other with respect and got along harmoniously. A year into their marriage, Su Taoxi lived a carefree life, but still had no children. In time, this earned the reputedly virtuous Su Taoxi a great deal of gossip.

But how could a couple who had never shared a bed have children?

At first, she assumed her husband was too busy with military affairs to care about romance. If she took the initiative, if she was willing to wait, surely she could melt that block of ice.

It was only after they faced danger together and survived that Xie Chengxuan understood the value of their marriage. He seemed to become a different person.

By day, he treated her with tender affection and protected her without reservation, pampering the once meek girl until she developed a temper of her own.

At night, he was as ravenous as a wolf. The man who had once forbidden her from setting foot in his study became clingy and insatiable, leaving Su Taoxi in tears night after night, with aching legs and a sore waist.

One night, after they had gone to bed, Su Taoxi happened to see a portrait in his study. Only then did she realize why Xie Chengxuan's "temperament had changed so dramatically." She also understood why he had once risked his life to rescue her from bandits.

It turned out her husband had long loved someone else. He had lowered himself to marry a merchant's daughter like her only because she looked seven parts like his childhood sweetheart.

On another ordinary night, her husband was as gentle and passionate as ever.

"...Taotao, I'm sorry."

"It's my fault. You did nothing wrong, Taotao."

"I'll make it up to you..."

As they clung to each other, the man holding her was restrained and repressed, his voice tinged with a bitterness she couldn't quite understand.

With tears soaking her pillow, Su Taoxi came to her senses as if waking from a dream. She knew that his childhood sweetheart had the single-character name Tao, and that her own youthful love had come to nothing.

Though her status was low, she refused to be anyone's substitute. Even after discovering she was pregnant three months later, she resolutely went to the military camp to ask Xie Chengxuan for a divorce.

"The General has someone else in his heart. I don't dare keep claiming the title of your wife. From now on, I'll take the child in my belly and disappear from your sight."

The divorce papers lay before him, every character neatly written and stained with tears.

"...You're pregnant?"

Xie Chengxuan, who had been away fighting for months, froze in place. His voice was hoarse, and his eyes darkened as he stared at her belly, only now realizing the truth.

Someone must have been plotting against him, stealing his wife right under his nose long ago.

Heavy rain poured down and thunder roared. The usually peaceful estate was in chaos.

After their divorce, Su Taoxi had been taken in by the elder brother-in-law she had "never met." When she asked what had happened, she learned there had been a fight.

The main fighters were her former husband and the new master of the estate, her elder brother-in-law, Xie Chengyao, the eldest son of the Xie family.

In the courtyard, swords flashed, and blood mingled with the rain.

The man beside her held her tightly in his arms. Even with blood at the corner of his mouth, he smiled as calmly as ever.

"Chengxuan, it's been a long time. What brings you to my home? Taotao has already chosen me. She doesn't belong to you anymore."

Seeing a new red mole suddenly appear on the man's collarbone, and two identical faces, Su Taoxi touched the child in her belly, who was about to be born. Her mind exploded.

Reading Guide:

1. The romance develops in stages.

2. The male leads are sexually inexperienced and both love the heroine. No one treats her as a substitute.

3. Note: The older brother is a manipulative, scheming, puppy-like man with no sense of right or wrong. He will forcibly pursue the heroine.

Theme: Break free of your chains and be reborn.