Synopsis
★ My completed novel next door, The Clingy Love That Never Ends: A scatterbrained, sincere sweetheart x a jealous, possessive prince who turns dark ★
Blurb:
On a night of driving snow, the Left Chancellor falls from power. Shen Zhao's family is destroyed, and the legitimate daughter of the Chancellor's household becomes a prisoner.
In a dark, damp cell, she has no choice but to seek help from the newly appointed Crown Prince, Xiao Yanheng, whom she once refused to marry.
Xiao Yanheng takes her exquisite face in his hand and looks down at her. "Since you won't be my wife, how about becoming my concubine?"
Shen Zhao's hair is disheveled. Beneath his overwhelming pressure, her slender, frail figure bows her head and bends her knees. The corners of her eyes redden. "...It is my good fortune."
There is no bridal sedan, no wedding. He fastens his bright yellow sash, sated and cold. "Remember your place. If you behave, I'll set you free in a year."
Only then does Shen Zhao understand how cruel and domineering he is.
She sets aside her pride and hides her talents, playing the obedient, ingratiating concubine, all in the hope that Xiao Yanheng will keep his word and let her leave.
Then Xiao Yanheng, who has always been cold and passionless, changes. Night after night, he sleeps in her bed, taking whatever he wants until she can barely get out of it.
Shen Zhao is flustered and alarmed to realize things aren't going as she expected.
By chance, she sees a portrait in his study that looks somewhat like her.
Then she learns he is having a wedding dress made for the Crown Princess chosen by the Emperor.
She absolutely refuses to share a husband with another woman.
Before he finds out she is pregnant, she risks everything to escape the Eastern Palace.
Xiao Yanheng is the stern, imposing heir to the throne. Beautiful in appearance, he is focused only on ruling the realm, and his iron-fisted methods show no mercy.
He has never been interested in women, and marriage is nothing but official business to him.
He despises how Shen Zhao holds herself aloft like a white crane in the clouds and dares to reject his proposal.
A vicious thought takes root in his heart: he will break that proud spirit of hers.
He forces her to submit and compels her to fall for him, even making exceptions for her.
After all, the Left Chancellor is counting on her to turn the tables, so surely she can't bear to leave.
But she actually... remains unmoved and even dares to hike up her skirts and run.
Waking from a delirious, feverish dream, he presses a faded, crumpled undergarment to his lips to soothe his pounding heart.
For the first time in his life, Xiao Yanheng tastes the pain of wanting someone he cannot have.
Freed at last, Shen Zhao strokes her increasingly rounded belly and lives a quiet, peaceful life.
A dependable gentleman has begun to show his affection for her, and she hopes she can slowly forget the miserable time she spent in the Eastern Palace.
Until, on the day she is to marry him, a grim line of armored soldiers appears outside the courtyard.
Xiao Yanheng holds a scroll in one hand, his long sword gleaming blue. His voice carries a hint of anger. "Nian Nian, you've been naughty. You used me and thought you could get away unscathed?"
How could he know that rarely used childhood nickname? Shen Zhao shivers as she remembers the boy she once saved when they were children.
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Reader's Guide:
. The woman Xiao Yanheng loves has always been the heroine. They simply took a long time to realize the truth because of a series of misunderstandings. The heroine's perspective includes information gaps, and there is an age gap between the leads.
. The heroine is gentle, kind, patient, and forgiving. Her family's downfall is not directly connected to the hero. The hero is an obsessive, unhinged jerk who will stop at nothing for love, including coercive possession.
. Happy ending, both leads are sexually inexperienced. The heroine is not a strong, independent female lead.
. Set in an imaginary historical world, loosely imagined, with original worldbuilding.
Written on 2025.9.18. Archived. Reposting prohibited.
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Next novel: After My Fiancé's Younger Brother Set His Sights on Me
A proud and aloof heir x an honest, sweet girl x a cunning, scheming general
Lin Zhi, a concubine-born daughter of the Lin family, is to marry in place of her legitimate elder sister, becoming a bride to bring good luck to Rong An, the sickly heir of a duke's mansion.
She has no choice if she wants to survive.
She dutifully attends to Rong An, getting up early every day to brew medicine and bring it to his bedside, staying up late to copy scriptures and pray for his health, and silently enduring his strange behavior when his illness flares up...
All she hopes is that they can marry soon.
Unexpectedly, Rong An shows no effort to hide his disdain. "Who do you think you are, imagining you could become a wife of the Rong family?"
Afraid of being sent back to her parents' home, Lin Zhi can only keep swallowing her anger and following Rong An around. Her life is miserable.
Until Rong Zheng, Rong An's twin younger brother and a close attendant to the Emperor, returns to the capital.
Rong Zheng looks exactly like Rong An, except that when he gets angry, the cinnabar mole at the corner of his brow is as vivid as blood.
Lin Zhi is a little afraid of him, especially when he gazes at her with a smile like a spring mountain.
His smile seems ready to see right through every secret she has.
What unsettles her most is that she can't tell the twins apart.
Then one day, in a secluded place, a hand roughened with thin calluses gently strokes her, while words gritted through clenched teeth fall beside her ear. "If you want so badly to be my sister-in-law, then beg me properly..."
Sister-in-law?
Lin Zhi stands frozen, her face burning with embarrassment and bewilderment.
Rong Zheng returns to the capital in triumph and stops at a temple to recover from his injuries. Unexpectedly, he hears the unspoken thoughts of a woman praying before the Buddha.
He glances up, startled. The woman's delicate beauty nearly makes the teacup in his hand slip.
When they meet again, she has become his elder brother's fake fiancée.
Watching her follow that sickly man and humble herself before him, he is angry at her weakness, angry that she is like a trailing vine.
Yet at night, as he tosses and turns, all he can see is her face.
The time has come to take back everything. Rong Zheng drives Lin Zhi step by step into a dark room, going mad with desire...
When Rong An first meets Lin Zhi, he sees her gently and earnestly trying to please him, and for no reason can help but feel disgusted.
Later, Rong An discovers that she is gentle with Rong Zheng, too.
Later still, Rong An wants only to marry her as soon as possible, so he can keep Lin Zhi locked at his side.
And finally, even if it means killing Rong Zheng...
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Reader's Guide:
1. The heroine is not married to anyone. No unhealthy messaging. Both leads are sexually inexperienced.
2. The hero can hear only the heroine's thoughts.
3. Neither the hero nor the second male lead is a good person. Expect a rivalry for the heroine.
4. The hero is scheming, devious, and obsessive, with an extreme possessiveness toward the heroine. He is utterly unhinged. Don't read if that's not for you.
Theme: Desirelessness brings strength; fearlessness brings courage.
