Startling Phoenix (Reborn)

This one isn't written well, so I don't recommend reading it.

My other novel, My Wife Is No Angel, is currently updating. It's a sweet post-marriage romance. The blurb is below.

Rong Yuan died three months after the new emperor ascended the throne. Before her death, the emperor had imprisoned her deep within the palace, using her every day to threaten her older sister.

Few people knew that the new emperor, Song Xun, was the orphaned son of the previous dynasty's crown prince. Everyone else thought he was the son of a disgraced minister, kept in the palace by the princess because of his striking looks, only to be humiliated day after day.

When rebels from the previous dynasty broke through the capital's gates and Song Xun became the new emperor, the first thing he did was imprison the princess and torment her.

On a silent late-autumn day, Rong Yuan gazed into the distance at her older sister, who had finally escaped the palace. Then she leapt from the Star-Seizing Terrace.

When she opened her eyes, she was sixteen again. Back then, she was still the fifth princess, unloved, timid, and afraid of trouble. Remembering everything that had happened in her previous life, Rong Yuan made the boldest decision of her life.

On a rainy night, she approached the man who had fainted after being forced to kneel for an entire day and night, a dagger hidden against her chest. But just as she tried to draw it, she met a pair of cold, dark eyes.

Her hand shook, and the dagger slipped from her wide sleeve.

Someone picked it up. A derisive laugh sounded beside her ear. "Does the Fifth Princess want to kill me?"

She looked at the man holding the dagger, then remembered the sight of him ascending the throne in the future. Her whole body shook like a leaf, and her eyes reddened. Stammering, she said, "I don't, I didn't, I wasn't..."

*

Rong Yuan figured that since she didn't have the nerve to kill Song Xun, she might as well try another approach: find some other way to lessen his hatred for her older sister, and secretly help him as much as she could.

Maybe, once he became emperor, she could use that kindness to beg him to spare her sister.

So when her sister punished him, Rong Yuan pleaded on his behalf.

When he was injured, she went to the Imperial Pharmacy for medicine and quietly slipped it to him.

Even after he ascended the throne just as he had in her previous life, she felt she had helped him so much that when the rebels captured her and her sister, she stepped in front of her sister and begged him to let her live.

But the man on the throne looked at her with those cool, dark eyes and spoke like a clap of thunder: "I can spare her, but only if you take her place."

Rong Yuan was stunned. Was he still holding a grudge over her failed attempt to murder him?!

Reader's Guide

1. One-on-one romance, both leads inexperienced, happy ending. Adorably naive heroine x cunning hero.

2. There's nothing going on between the hero and the princess (emphasis).

3. The hero also loved the heroine in his previous life.

4. The setting is very loose, with a hodgepodge of dynasties and official ranks.

6. It's probably a sweet little romance.

My Wife Is No Angel

A shameless sweetheart x an exceptionally proper gentleman

An unexpected turn of events leads Song Yunzhi to marry Xie Chen.

The Xie family is an ancient and distinguished clan, and the third son, Xie Chen, is the most outstanding of its young men. He is impossibly handsome, noble, and refined. Many unmarried women in the capital adore him, so who would have thought the fifth daughter of the Song family would get so lucky?

Everyone says Song Yunzhi is fortunate to have married Xie Chen.

Song Yunzhi: What luck? It took a great deal of effort to marry Xie Chen.

Her mother constantly drilled one lesson into her: if a woman wants something, she should do whatever it takes to get it.

*

Xie Chen married Song Yunzhi out of a sense of responsibility. Though the elders in his family looked down on this concubine-born daughter of the Song family, she was obedient and sensible, so he decided to keep her under his roof.

He thought that as long as she behaved herself in the inner quarters, he would be happy to treat her with mutual respect and live in harmony with her.

Later, he discovered that his young wife was not quite the person he had thought. Even his sister-in-law found an opportunity to complain about her, earnestly warning him to be careful of Song Yunzhi.

Xie Chen paid little attention, thinking his sister-in-law was exaggerating.

That is, until one day at a wedding banquet, he saw his usually obedient wife push the second young lady of the Wang family into a pond without batting an eye.

He frowned. Perhaps there really was a bit of a problem.

*

At first, Xie Chen thought that since he had already married her, then even if Song Yunzhi had questionable motives, she was his wife, and it was his responsibility to set her straight.

Later, when he learned that even their marriage had been engineered by Song Yunzhi, he lost his temper with her for the first time. But when he met her tear-filled eyes, brimming with fear, his anger immediately died away.

He sighed, pulled her into his arms, and comforted her. He failed to notice Song Yunzhi's triumphant smile, thinking there was plenty of time to guide her onto the right path.

Xie Chen had spent more than twenty years studying the classics and despised scheming above all else.

When he caught Song Yunzhi trying to trip someone up again, he finally lost patience and locked her in a dark room.

This time, he would punish the naughty young woman severely.

Bewitching My Childhood Friend

Shen Zhiyi is the legitimate daughter of a prominent clan, with a face of breathtaking beauty. To outsiders, she is graceful and composed, and she and the gentle, refined young master of the Lu family have been childhood friends.

Everyone in the capital assumes the two are a perfect match, destined to marry sooner or later.

Hearing the gossip, Shen Zhiyi rolls her eyes. Since when did her petty, vindictive childhood friend become a noble gentleman?

Watching Lu Heng put on airs, she silently condemns him.

And Lu Heng has no idea when his spoiled childhood friend became the model of a refined young lady.

Watching Shen Zhiyi put on a show of coy refinement, he can only shake his head.

No one knows that this seemingly harmonious and well-matched pair enjoy undermining each other in private, both tacitly believing the other is not good enough for them.

*

When it comes time to discuss marriage, Shen Zhiyi takes a liking to the young son of the Vice Minister of Rites. He is gentle and courteous, and blushes whenever he sees her.

She hints at her feelings and repeatedly tells her older brother that she likes quiet, gentle men.

Her brother confidently thumps his chest and promises to arrange everything.

On the day the marriage is discussed, Shen Zhiyi's eyes widen as she sees the figure standing before the elders, upright as a pine tree. Who else could it be but her childhood friend, the one she is always at odds with in private?

When she sees Lu Heng smile warmly at her, she stomps hard on her brother's foot just as he is about to claim credit.

*

In a secluded corner of the Shen residence, Lu Heng catches up with Shen Zhiyi, who is sulking. He pins her against the wall, bends down to kiss her, then bites her as if to punish her.

His behavior makes Shen Zhiyi's eyes turn red with anger. She thinks he must still be holding a grudge over the match she once ruined for him, and has come to torment her on purpose.

He really is petty!

Lu Heng gives a soft laugh and says hoarsely, "Zhinu, you're right. I hold a grudge."

His voice is touched with a faint smile, but beneath it lie turbulent emotions he can barely restrain.

"So you ruined one marriage match for me back then. Now you'll make it up to me with one of your own."

Theme: Changing your fate through your own efforts.