Pearls and Jade

[Complete. The earlier chapters are being polished to fix errors and omissions.]

Liu Nanzhi was the legitimate daughter of the Liu family. She had been spoiled as she grew up, and was willful and proud. She had forced the young master of the Shen family to agree to marry her.

But three days before the wedding, a young woman arrived at the Liu residence and fell to her knees in tears, claiming that she was the Liu family's real daughter.

A fake had been passed off as the real thing, and the family had doted on the wrong girl for more than ten years.

Nanzhi was thrown out of the Liu residence in front of everyone, then pursued by assassins all the way.

Nanzhi resolved to report them to the Prefect of Jingzhao, but accidentally fell off a cliff. Her mind was in a fog, and she couldn't remember anything.

She only remembered that her name was Nanzhi, that she had to go to the capital and find the Prefect of Jingzhao, and that her future husband had married another woman and driven her out of his residence...

Hmm... Nanzhi had figured it out!

The Prefect of Jingzhao was the husband she had met by chance, but he had betrayed his promise, proved heartless and unfeeling, and left her behind in Yangzhou while he returned to the capital alone!

One day, outside the Chen residence, Nanzhi wept like a pear blossom in the rain as she tremulously told the gathered onlookers how her faithless husband had abandoned her.

A servant rushed inside with a deathly pale face and reported, “My lord, there's a young woman outside claiming to be the wife you abandoned in Yangzhou!”

Chen Zhuo, who had been single for over twenty years, slowly raised his head: ...?

The two somehow ended up married, and Nanzhi used the fact that he had tricked and abandoned her as an excuse to become even more spoiled. She bossed him around in their room and did whatever she pleased, practically stepping on his face as she shouted at him.

Then an old acquaintance came to the capital, and Nanzhi's memories suddenly returned.

She... she had actually done something so shameless and foolish!

At first sight, Chen Zhuo thought Nanzhi was a swindler looking for a handout. He courteously brought her back to his residence, while secretly sneering and wondering how to expose her lies.

Later, he discovered that she was the Liu family's fake daughter who had run away and hit her head, leaving her confused.

She was, after all, a lonely girl with no one to rely on. He might as well let her stay.

That was how he reassured himself.

Little by little, his bottom line shifted. He married Nanzhi and let her become the wife who ruled over him. Whenever he saw fine silks, golden hairpins, or jade ornaments while out and about, he would buy them for her. He was willing to accept the reputation of a faithless husband, and even hoped she would remain amnesiac forever.

That was, until the Liu family came to the capital, claiming there had been a mistake: Nanzhi was their biological daughter and the Shen family's daughter-in-law, and they were going to take her back.

*Nanzhi among the treetops, adorned with jade and pearls

*A thousand gold pieces lie in the heart, not in the body

The title was inspired by Fan Zhongyan's “Dew-covered branches flourish in profusion, adorned with jade and pearls, scattered among the fine trees.”

>3<

1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced. The story is 30% plot and 70% romance. The plot leans toward an ensemble of women, while the romance is married first, love later. It's a sweet story!

2. After the Liu family comes to the capital, the heroine will regain her memories. The real-and-fake daughter plot has more to it than meets the eye.

3. Both leads have character flaws. The heroine is money-loving and spoiled (her mom thinks she's adorable, like a kitten).

4. The hero had met the heroine and fallen for her before agreeing to marry her. He wasn't forced by someone else.

5. Every character in this story has flaws. Nobody is perfect.

2025.3.16

My other novel, Spring's Embrace, is currently updating!

Fuxiang owned a tea plantation. To lighten her workload, she bought back a government slave and brought him to the mountain to recover from his injuries.

The slave was tall and slender, with a beautiful face, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. But he was gravely wounded and near death. She spent a fortune to save him, only to discover that she had rescued a wretched servant whose tongue seemed to have been dipped in poison. He complained about everything.

Still, seeing that handsome face every day inevitably stirred her heart.

A few months later, their relationship had grown closer, and Fuxiang began to think about keeping him by her side for good.

Who would have thought that a carrier pigeon would deliver the wrong letter, revealing that A Gui, who usually did whatever she told him, was actually the arrogant young marquis of Chang'an. He was unruly and had no regard for proper conduct, and few people who offended him met a good end.

Fuxiang was so frightened that she immediately packed up and ran, but accidentally left behind the cat she had been raising.

A year later, Fuxiang entered the capital with her fiance to request an imperial decree granting their marriage.

When she met her old acquaintance again, she pretended to be calm and composed, but she couldn't resist the temptation of the cat she had raised. She could only keep telling herself that nobody would know she and Young Marquis Qin had once shared a romance.

But the first person to discover it was her fiance.

Qin Yan was a notorious playboy in the capital.

He was arrogant, conceited, and haughty, convinced that nobody in the world could equal him, and that no one was worthy of laying a hand on him.

That was, until he was framed and accidentally ended up among the government slaves.

A young woman paid money for him, then brought him to a barren mountain in the middle of nowhere with a look of utter disdain.

One day she made him clean out the slop; the next, wash dishes and scrub shoes. She made more demands than an imperial consort.

Qin Yan worked while covered in wounds, so furious his head was practically smoking. He gritted his teeth and swore that once his guards found him, he would have the woman cut into a thousand pieces and torn apart by chariots!

Later, the woman stole his body and his heart, then abandoned him on the barren mountain.

He returned home full of anger, brooded for a long time, and secretly swore he would make her remember this lesson about abandoning her husband.

But who could have guessed that when he saw her again, she would be arriving hand in hand with someone else, about to get married?

So he decided to steal the bride.

Theme: Cherish the present and leave no regrets