Washing Away the Rouge

The new ruler is ambitious, seizing the throne with his infant son still in swaddling clothes.

Though a widower with a child in tow, countless people still want to help him find a match.

But Xiao Luoling has no such intentions. Besides taking care of his child, his greatest hobby is playing matchmaker and arranging marriages left and right.

They say that ever since the new ruler lost his wife, he can't bear to see lovers kept apart.

One day, the young general Bian Zhou came to the emperor and told him he loved a concubine-born daughter of Chancellor Xu. He had pined for her in vain, but Chancellor Xu would not agree to the match.

Moved by the young general's unrequited love, the new ruler immediately agreed to bring them together and issue an imperial decree arranging their marriage.

Xiao Luoling took great pains to arrange a Hairpin Flower Banquet, where he would play matchmaker for the two.

But at the banquet, he caught sight of the concubine-born daughter of Chancellor Xu whom the young general had chosen.

Her hair was arranged in clouds, her beauty as delicate as a painted portrait, her loveliness peerless.

So very familiar.

The wine cup in Xiao Luoling's hand shattered...

Young General Bian waited and waited at home, but the emperor's decree of marriage never came.

Unable to hold back any longer, he tried to sound out the emperor. "Your Majesty, did you perhaps forget something?"

Xiao Luoling: "Did I? The child has been keeping me up lately, and the resulting exhaustion has affected my memory."

Young General Bian: "..."

*

Xu Fangchu was raised away from home from a young age. Life in the mountains was dull, day after day.

The boldest thing she ever did was nurse a badly wounded man back to health and spend one night with him.

Ten months later, she gave birth to a son.

She never expected her scumbag father to suddenly remember he had a daughter and send someone to bring her home.

For the sake of her future, Xu Fangchu wrote a letter severing all ties and left it with the child for the man.

She returned home and finally became a pampered young lady of noble birth.

Then the old ruler was replaced, and a new ruler took the throne.

Her days in the Chancellor's residence were comfortable and prosperous, like a fish in water.

Until the day she saw the new ruler at the Hairpin Flower Banquet.

As graceful as a jade tree on a jade terrace, with eyes like autumn waters, his beauty peerless.

So familiar.

In his arms, he held their child.

Reading Guide:

1. One-on-one romance, the male lead is a widower raising a child, and the couple reunites after a breakup.

2. The heroine covets wealth and status. She left the child because she didn't want to raise it. The male lead falls first and is utterly devoted.

Bonus Scene:

The young crown prince has been troubled lately.

His father told him, "Don't tell her that Ah Chu is your mother. This is a secret between the two of us."

The young crown prince promised, but later couldn't help acknowledging his mother.

Then his mother told him, "Don't tell your father that I'm your mother. This is our little secret."

The young crown prince: "..."

Next novel: "Moth, Snow, and Willow Branches"

Hang Chenyin, a noblewoman from a fallen family, is married off to Shen Zhi, a general and newly risen noble from a humble family.

The following year, Hang Chenyin's husband goes mad.

He ties himself and Chen Lansi to the edge of a cliff and makes her choose.

The one not chosen will die.

One is the husband she sees every day, the other the beloved she admired in her youth.

Hang Chenyin chooses the latter.

Shen Zhi had always known it would come to this. His smile is filled with endless self-mockery and self-loathing.

"Ah Yin, if I die, can you stop hating me?"

Hang Chenyin doesn't realize any of this is real. Panic suddenly seizes her, and she rushes forward, but she's too late.

She watches helplessly as he cuts the ropes binding him and falls into the abyss.

*

Hang Chenyin had always hated Shen Zhi, until he suddenly died.

*

The first month after his death, it felt as if a piece of her heart had suddenly gone missing.

The second month after his death, winter in Chang'an was bitterly cold, and white snow blanketed his grave.

The third month after his death, the imperial court welcomed back the Fourth Prince, who had been missing for many years.

Reading Guide:

1. Part of the "I Wouldn't Marry for Spring Breeze Back Then" series. A wildly dramatic, tear-jerking melodrama with a groveling ex.

2. The male lead was raised by wolves. He's a deranged, love-obsessed man who will die if nobody loves him.

3. One-on-one romance, with a little pursuing-her-husband plot from the heroine. The male lead suffers physically and emotionally, but the story turns very sweet once they fall in love with each other. You can trust this sweet-romance writer. There may also be some rivalry among men for the heroine.

Theme: Once you've seen the ocean, no other water will do; aside from Mount Wu, no clouds can compare