The Beloved Black Lotus's Undercover Handbook

Jiang Chouyu, the little junior sister of their sect who tripped on flat ground and fainted at the sight of blood, had lately taken to staring dreamily at the sect leader.

"The sect leader's tourmaline thumb ring is so pretty." She counted the magical treasures hanging from him on her fingers, her eyes sparkling. "He has money and power, and disciples to bring him tea, run errands, and do as they're told..."

Apart from Senior Brother Qi, who was aloof by nature and always cold to her, everyone laughed and teased her: Little Junior Sister, are you hoping to become the sect leader's wife?

Then, on a moonless, windless night, Little Junior Sister took a huge iron hammer and smashed the sect leader's head to pieces.

Little Junior Sister killed the sect leader.

Little Junior Sister became their new sect leader.

Little Junior Sister even dragged Senior Brother Qi into the luxurious bedroom she'd just seized for herself, and kept him there all night!

Everyone: ?

Also: A blurb from the male lead's perspective

*

Qi Yan'an was a once-in-a-thousand-years prodigy of his sect, exceptionally gifted and strikingly handsome. At sixteen, he was already renowned, with the line, "A young man's dazzling shadow, one sword to stir the Jade Capital," spreading far and wide.

At sixteen, he went down the mountain with several senior brothers to gain experience. In a secret realm on Mount Buzhou, he encountered a woman in red.

She was breathtakingly beautiful, unmatched in her elegance, but afflicted by an aphrodisiac poison and no longer in her right mind. Qi Yan'an lost focus for a moment, and she abducted him.

She was far more powerful than he was, and took his spirit sword. The beautiful sixteen-year-old was brutally pinned against a jagged rock face by the woman in red, who had her way with him with savage abandon.

The cinnabar mark between his brows was shattered. He was no longer a virgin. When he returned to the sect, everyone was in an uproar at the sight of his once-pristine brow, smooth and bare as jade.

Thus, the dazzling young prodigy fell into the mud in a single day.

People mocked him behind his back, and noble young ladies broke off their engagements. But Qi Yan'an seemed not to care. He quietly clutched the jade pendant the woman had left him, content to wait for her to come propose.

But ten years passed, and not a single woman in red came looking for him with that pendant.

*

At the end of the summer of the eleventh year, a fresh-faced new junior sister, Jiang Chouyu, joined the sect.

Qi Yan'an recognized her right away.

She already had a secondary husband by her side. She respected him, pitied him, and doted on him, giving him every honor she could in the other world she came from.

But here...

By day, Qi Yan'an coldly watched her surrounded by people, obedient and deferential to everyone in the sect, putting on a helpless act that made people want to cherish her.

At night, he silently let her pull him beneath the red gauze canopy, listening as she threatened him in a bewitching voice: "Only if my secret stays safe can Yan'an's secrets stay safe, too."

Through countless nights when she toyed with him and used him to relieve her needs, Qi Yan'an kept wondering what she thought he was to her.

Of course, he knew the answer.

The poison in her body hadn't fully cleared, so to her, he was...

Nothing more than a bitter medicine she had no choice but to swallow.

*

With Jiang Chouyu's revenge accomplished and the poison finally gone, everything falling into place as she had wished, Qi Yan'an packed his things. He congratulated her, but also said goodbye.

Though it had taken all these years, someone had finally come seeking his hand in marriage. Qi Yan'an thought it was time to break free of Jiang Chouyu and live a life of his own.

But on his wedding day, Jiang Chouyu stood in the middle of the wedding hall, dressed in red and leaning on a heavy black-iron hammer. The sight made every guest and relative tremble into silence as they waited for the newlyweds to enter.

She smiled, her eyes as blood-red as they had been when they first met. In a soft but utterly dangerous voice, she called, "Yan'an, come here."

"Has the poison flared up again?"

In the warm bridal chamber prepared for the newlyweds, she hooked a finger into the groom's jade belt. Her teeth had been nibbling at his soft earlobe, but now she stopped.

She raised her beautiful, innocent-looking face to him. "What are you talking about? The poison was cured back at Mount Buzhou."

Reading Guide:

1. What she wants, she gets. The beloved little junior sister plays the fool while hiding her true nature. Her weakness is an act; smashing the Three Realms with a hammer is real.

2. A wickedly righteous, flirtatious drama queen of a junior sister x a proud and aloof senior brother in public who turns into her dog in private. The blurb is from the male lead's perspective, while the novel itself is from the female lead's perspective. This is a straight romance, not a female-top/male-bottom story. There are no nonconsensual scenes, and both leads are pure in body and heart. The blurb is intentionally misleading, so rest assured. It's sweet (probably), monogamous, and has a happy ending.

3. Both leads are powerful, but the woman is the strongest. In terms of combat strength, the female lead crushes the male lead, and the male lead crushes everyone else.

Blurb written on 2025.02.17

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The next novel is Yingning, about a girl from the wasteland who elopes with an aristocratic young master. Here's a preview blurb:

Yingning, the ruler of the demon-quelling lands of the Northern Wastes, had lived in seclusion for thousands of years, never once setting foot beyond the wasteland. She kept apart from the bustling Jade Capital and its Immortal Alliance in the Central Plains. Solitary and taciturn, her power was unfathomable.

Though she never entered the Jade Capital, the young masters of its noble families were sent to her cave abode year after year, in an endless stream, by their clan heads, in hopes of arranging a marriage alliance.

That year, demonic energy ran rampant throughout the Central Plains. Even the illustrious Zhong Clan of Lingshan had to set aside their pride and send one of their own young masters.

A young master raised by the Zhong Clan of Lingshan was naturally elegant and refined. The moment he lifted the carriage curtain, he radiated such noble splendor that no one dared look directly at him, outshining all the other young masters.

He was one of the finest young masters in the Immortal Alliance. He could have married any noble young lady, so it seemed that after more than a thousand years, the vacant position of the Northern Wastes' consort would finally have an heir.

But Yingning didn't even glance at the splendid young man. Instead, she stared fixedly at the hunched, grime-covered coachman sitting at the front of the carriage. She pointed at him, her voice calm yet firm: "I want him."

Everyone was stunned.

Only then did she turn to look at the well-dressed young master sitting inside, who was staring back at her in shock. Like a courteous suitor proposing marriage, she asked him, "May I?"

She looked seriously at the equally stunned coachman, without a trace of jest. "I want no one but him."

*

Zhong Linyu, the most precious young master of the Zhong Clan of Lingshan, was the clan head's only son. Noble and resplendent, he had been the apple of his family's eye since birth, the one and only chosen son of heaven in the Immortal Alliance.

He had just come of age that year. Still young and eager to explore the far northern wastelands, he took advantage of his cousin's selection for a political marriage. He smeared yellow powder on his face, disguised himself as an ugly, hunched coachman, and secretly headed north without telling his family.

But the ruler of the wasteland didn't choose his cousin. She pointed a graceful hand at him instead.

Though Zhong Linyu was startled, he wasn't particularly worried.

The ruler of the Northern Wastes had spent her life in a remote, uncivilized place. Her way of life was primitive and crude, and she seemed a little slow-witted, too. His cousin was already lowering himself by marrying her. To think she could have him was a fool's dream. He didn't need to worry; his parents would handle everything for him.

But his parents were overjoyed when they heard the news. They sent him off to the Northern Wastes that very night in a wedding sedan chair, with drums and gongs and a dowry worth ten thousand gold.

Zhong Linyu sat in the sedan chair, tightly surrounded by layers of wards to keep him from running away before the wedding: ...

On their wedding night, Yingning wore a gorgeous wedding robe. She stood in front of him, raised her arms, and slowly spun around. Then she did it again, and again, showing it off to him without ever tiring.

Zhong Linyu was dizzy by the time he heard her softly ask, "Brother Linyu, do I look pretty dressed like this?"

Zhong Linyu had no desire to speak to her. He lay stiffly on the bed, closed his eyes, and gave up, silently telling her to get on with it. But then a quilt appeared over him. When he opened his eyes, she was still wearing her wedding robe as she tucked him in and lay down beside him fully clothed. She didn't move again.

In the end, Zhong Linyu gritted his teeth and lifted one corner of the quilt himself.

She turned to him with concern. "Are you cold?" Then she kindly tucked the corner he'd lifted back in.

After they married, she took care of him in every way and indulged his every whim. Whatever he asked for, she agreed, but she never touched him.

What did it mean to be a husband who couldn't excite his wife? Was this humiliation?

He snapped at her, threw away her gifts, and spat out the river fish she brought him. He said he didn't like them, but she never got angry. She would only fall silent for a long while, then apologize: "I'm sorry. I thought you'd like them. I won't bring you these things again." Then she would leave.

At the most splendid Lantern Festival celebration in the Jade Capital, she stepped out of the wasteland for the first time for his sake. The young masters of the noble families mocked her as uncultured behind her back, so he spent a fortune to buy her the most expensive and beautiful jade ornaments and pinned them in her hair.

But the jewels couldn't match the clarity of her bright eyes. Uncomfortably, he turned his face away and coldly taunted her, asking if this was the first time anyone had bought her such expensive and tasteful jewelry.

She looked at him and suddenly fell silent. She shook her head, looking a little disappointed, then said very seriously, "Someone once gave me something even better."

*

A thousand years ago, Yingning was abducted by the Yun Clan of the Northern Wastes. They wanted to exploit her power to see through demons to revive their clan, so year after year they flogged her body, scourged her soul, imprisoned her, and tortured her in every way.

Then one day, a young master of the Zhongli Clan came to visit with the cousin he was meant to marry. He saw her suffering and secretly unlocked her chains.

Yingning escaped and hid in his carriage. She fled the Northern Wastes and arrived in the prosperous Jade Capital of the Central Plains, hiding inside the abandoned stove in his family's side courtyard.

He found her but didn't drive her away. Instead, he cleaned the blood from her, fed her, and kept her hidden. He taught her to read and write, and even let her transform into a smaller form and hide in his sleeve. He took her to the Jade Capital's grandest Lantern Festival celebration.

Several years later, on a snowy night, the Yun Clan came after them. He used his soul to hold the formation's core in place, spending the last of his spiritual power to push her out of the formation.

He was covered in blood, surrounded by enemies armed with a thousand blades and spears, dying in the center of the killing formation.

Yingning couldn't understand why her heart hurt so much. She cried his name again and again, until her throat was hoarse, until she wept tears of blood, until her spiritual energy spiraled out of control and she killed every member of the Yun Clan who had taken part in the hunt.

She rushed over and caught him in her arms, but the formation had already torn his soul apart. All he could do was smile at her and say that he had never regretted bringing her home.

"It's just a pity I never got to take A Ning to try the famous river fish at Yunhui Tower, or walk openly with A Ning through the Lantern Festival celebration. I never got to see you in a wedding dress, either. You must have looked beautiful..."

Snow covered her shoulders and back as he died in her arms.

That night, the entire Jade Capital fell silent beneath the heavy snowfall. The only sound was a woman's anguished wail, ringing through the long night without end.

Now, a thousand years later, the young masters of noble families gathered in the Northern Wastes, and at a glance, she saw his soul.

On their wedding night, she put on the gorgeous wedding robe she'd prepared with such care. She spun around again and again, showing it to him and asking whether she looked pretty.

She invited a chef from Yunhui Tower to make him the freshest river fish.

She went with him to the Jade Capital's grandest Lantern Festival celebration.

She carefully fulfilled every one of his wishes.

But perhaps, now that everything had begun again, the wishes left unfulfilled in their past life were no longer what he wanted in this one.

He disliked her. He wasn't happy, either.

She was simply clinging to her own obsession, imprisoning both him and herself.

After much quiet reflection, she left him a divorce agreement and apologized sincerely. "I'm sorry, Brother Linyu. Go back to your own world."

As soon as news of their divorce spread, the noble families began scheming again, sending people to the Northern Wastes.

The Jade Capital's most haughty young master, Zhong, strode through the crowds of young men. He grabbed Yingning, who was still dazedly looking back at them, and dragged her away. "What are you looking at? We're going home!"

He gritted his teeth. "I'm not signing the divorce agreement. In life, I'm yours. In death, I'll be your ghost. Zhu Yingning, you'll just have to put up with me for the rest of your life!"

Reader notes:

1. Monogamous, both leads have only ever been with each other, happy ending, sweet romance.

2. The male lead is a little difficult at first, mainly because his wife never consummates their marriage and he suspects she's playing him.

3. Both leads are powerful, but the woman is stronger. In their past life, the female lead's abilities hadn't fully awakened. After the male lead triggers her awakening, no one can bully her again.

Theme: You can't judge the sea by measuring its depth.