Carving Spring Boudoirs

[I'll polish this after the novel is complete. Some details differ from pirated versions. Thank you for your support, and thanks to everyone reading the official version.]

Chu Hong, a self-made female shopkeeper, is no harmless little flower. Skilled at overcoming force with gentleness, she runs into the sharpest, most cutting tongue of all.

1.

Chen Mo has always hated three kinds of people: the deceitful and cunning, those who don't know their place, and people who show off and act tough in front of him. The woman before him is all three, ten times over.

He has always thought that even a concubine-born daughter of a minor official's family should know some manners.

She has no manners, no refinement, no virtue, and can't even read. If a woman has all those flaws, who would marry her? There probably wouldn't even be a matchmaker willing to visit.

Oh, right. She also ran away from a marriage and is a divorcée.

But when the fake tribute goods scandal comes to light, Chen Mo is the first to clear her name.

2.

That fine-looking heir seems elegant and refined on the surface, but his head is full of feudal nonsense. He wants money, and on top of that, he wants her to become his concubine. Ha! What a joke.

Chu Hong built her business from nothing. Who in Yangzhou doesn't know that Guiyue Residence is flourishing? She'd only let him marry into her family because of his face.

As the days pass, she finally severs ties with that arrogant, unfortunate heir, cleanly and completely.

Who can understand the pain of spending 150,000 taels of silver for just one kiss?

Before she can settle into her place as Yangzhou's richest woman, the truth about the tribute goods comes out.

3.

When Chu Hong finds Chen Mo, the man seems like a stranger. His hair is disheveled, his black clothes and silver armor are stained with blood, and there are several wounds on his face. Even the word "criminal" has been carved into his neck. Where is the proud young heir who used to wear only white and couldn't bear to get a speck of dust on himself?

The way he looks at her as if they were strangers keeps Chu Hong from daring to speak to him. She can only watch as he returns to the cage known as the capital.

After the victory banquet, Chen Mo uses his drunkenness as an excuse to corner her by the table and pull her into his arms. He grips her chin and demands:

Didn't you say we should go our separate ways from now on?

From conspiring to forge things together to turning swords on each other: she printed books, while he carved his heart.

Reading Guide

1. [Bickering couple + rekindled love + groveling pursuit + becoming enemies]

2. Gentle, beautiful female shopkeeper x scheming, sharp-tongued heir

3. The heir is easy to fool at first.

4. He kept up the act for half the story.

5. Both leads are virgins.

Coming Soon

Tears Behind the Curtains: Frail Beauty x The Capital's Number One Playboy

Chen Qiao was beautiful from childhood, a famous beauty across the surrounding villages. She excelled at painting, calligraphy, and needlework. Her only flaw was a congenital illness. Her father was a merchant, and when his cargo ship sank, he lost everything. With no other option, her mother sent her to the Cui family as a concubine.

The matchmaker told her that the Qinghe Cui family had been a prestigious clan for centuries. Once she entered the household, she would have to follow the rules and obey the matriarch. She agreed to everything and diligently went about her life in the residence for the sake of her medicine, until one day she met the second young master, who had just been beaten and thrown out. The man glared at her with a sinister expression, then knocked over the medicine in the maid's hands.

Only later, after overhearing the household servants, did she learn that the second young master was not born to the matriarch. He was the bastard son of the master and a courtesan, conceived during a night of pleasure.

He had been secretly raised in the home of a subordinate, and spent the first twenty years of his life flouting convention. Half the city's young playboys were his close friends. He was brought back and acknowledged by the family only because the eldest young master was bedridden with a long illness, and someone had to continue the family line and inherit the estate.

Chen Qiao feels little about the man the servants call her husband. Instead, she often steals glances at the second young master, whose name even bears the character for "illegitimate."

Until one night, she catches the second young master, his clothes in disarray, hurrying out of the eastern courtyard with a dark expression, followed by three sobbing maids.

Her husband's illness grows worse, while Chen Qiao's complexion becomes ever more alluring. On the couch behind a screen, the beauty's eyes are full of tenderness and her skirt is askew. The man before her smiles, a slyness hidden in his eyes. "Qiao Qiao, you'd better not let anyone else see you like this."

Outside, Cui Zhe is arrogant and reckless, but in front of Chen Qiao he is utterly obedient. If she says east, he never goes west. If Chen Qiao wants the stars in the sky, Cui Zhe would never pluck the moon instead. He would even cut out his own heart and offer it to her.

That little bit of sincerity makes Chen Qiao think she is different from everyone else in his heart, until the affair is discovered. The man watches coolly from the sidelines and says she was the one who seduced him first.

One sentence sends Chen Qiao plunging into an icy abyss. Only then does she understand where she stands: in Cui Zhe's eyes, she has always been nothing more than a pawn in his revenge against the Cui family.

Theme: Fate may be decided by heaven, but it can also be changed by one's own hand