A Thousand Enchantments, Spring Comes Late

[Complete] Sweet and sour, but much more sweet than sour. Enjoy with confidence.

At sixteen, Cheng Fu was offered by her legal mother as a concubine to a sixty-year-old political official.

On the way to flee to Danzhou, the official boat capsized. Cheng Fu struggled to cling to a plank and stay afloat, while Miss Su, who had argued with her, drowned.

What she did not know was that Miss Su was the fiancee of Cui Lingzhan, a powerful minister at court.

Not long afterward, Cheng Fu was caught in Danzhou. The prefect fawned on his superiors and oppressed those beneath him, delivering her into Cui Lingzhan's hands to be dealt with as he saw fit.

Cui Lingzhan surveyed the bedraggled Cheng Fu and smiled faintly.

"She couldn't swim." He looked down at her and lifted her cold chin. "But you knew how to swim, and you had the plank. Why didn't you pull her up?"

She answered stiffly, "I tried to pull her up, but she pushed me back into the water. I was terrified, and when I fought back, I accidentally pushed her..."

Cui Lingzhan said, "She wasn't that kind of person."

His fiancee's good character was known to all, while Cheng Fu lied habitually.

It turned out that even resisting a beating from the powerful was a crime for the lowborn. Because Cheng Fu fought back and Miss Su drowned as a result, she was forced into servitude to atone, until she glimpsed the secret desires beneath Cui Lingzhan's upright facade.

Cheng Fu suddenly understood.

She had to escape this endless cage as soon as possible and live for herself, just once.

When Cui Lingzhan realized that he had fallen in love with the Danzhou girl whose speech still carried a local accent, he plunged straight into an abyss of despair.

She had a pair of almond eyes brimming with an intense will to survive.

Under the pretext of "atonement," he used despicable means to force her to satisfy his secret desires.

After getting what he wanted, he held her tightly, making her remember his face well. He was her first man.

And yet, after he promised to take responsibility and give her a proper title, she ran away.

She had clearly been so happy, leaning against him and thanking him, cheerfully choosing new clothes to wear when she was elevated to concubine and asking him for pretty hair ornaments.

She had charmed him until he was completely under her spell. He gave her everything she wanted and listened to everything she said, even when she asked to be more than a concubine. She begged him to wait, promising she would marry him in six months.

So how had she run away?

He was terrified. He feared she would wander without a home and be bullied by others. Even more, he feared she would meet with disaster on the road, with no plank left to cling to.

His mind and heart were in turmoil.

[Blurb dated April 18, 2025, screenshot saved as proof]

[Plagiarism and theft will be pursued]

Reading Guide

1. The male lead is pure in both body and heart, a cold-faced, lovesick dog. His feelings for his fiancee are half familial affection and half a sense of duty, not genuine love. He is not a paragon of goodness: he has the full range of human emotions and desires, as well as a dark side. But he loves the female lead to an extraordinary degree, and all his boundaries exist for her sake. Readers who only accept flawless protagonists should enter with caution.

2. The blurb presents an incomplete perspective. The female lead bears no responsibility for Miss Su's death. The first three chapters cover the first half of the blurb from the start.

3. In the blurb, the female and male leads sleep together because each has something the other wants.

4. The story is set in a feudal society of the past, so the protagonists' behavior and reasoning necessarily fit that setting. Please do not take things out of context or offer writing advice based on modern logic.

5. Sweet and sour, but much more sweet, very much more. An alternate history with many author-invented details. Historical fact-checking is not welcome.

6. Any traditional Chinese medicine mentioned is not professional advice and is only there to serve this Mary Sue plot. Do not take it seriously, and do not imitate anything dangerous.

7. Please do not mention this story under other people's works, and do not mention other works under this story either.

Strongly Recommended Upcoming Story: My Ex Took Revenge After Becoming Emperor

| An ex's revenge leads them into the same bed | Fighting outside the covers, making up under them |

The young Crown Prince, with a clear and captivating voice, said to Wen Qian, "If I could have my cousin for a wife, I would give her exclusive favor in my inner palace."

The young man's vow was sincere and moving.

Time passed. Five years later.

The new emperor had been on the throne for two years. The empress's position remained vacant, and he still had no children.

That year, Wen Qian's fiance died of illness, and her clan harshly blamed her.

Unexpectedly, her father suddenly rose to power again and presented her to her cousin, the current emperor. She was granted the rank of Fifth-Rank Beauty.

At twenty, Wen Qian fulfilled the youthful promise and became her cousin's wife.

She never expected a treacherous person to expose the elegy she had written for her late fiance. With an amused smile, her cousin casually read it aloud in front of her. When he finished, he seriously pointed out two dull and affected lines, advised her to cultivate her character by reading more, and then said, "Cousin, you are so deeply devoted. What man in the world could see that and not feel for you?"

The "feel for you" he spoke of carried a deeper meaning.

That very night, he stayed with her and showed her his "tender care" until she became pregnant.

Later, he personally placed upon her head the "shackles" known as the phoenix crown, "locking" her in the palace for all her life.

It was his revenge, and also his vow.

"Cousin, your character really is awful."

"Cousin, you toyed with my sincere feelings, so I'll toy with you. We're even."

An easygoing, obedient-seeming bad girl x a pure-hearted, dark and wicked scoundrel

Reading Guide

1. [Both leads are virgins] [Each has their own flaws] [Neither is a paragon of goodness]. Readers with many dealbreakers or who require perfect protagonists should enter with caution. You don't need to tell me if you drop the story. Be kind, and may you make a fortune!

2. Nothing else is guaranteed beyond both leads being virgins. Alternate history, no historical fact-checking.

3. They are six months apart in age.

Blurb published October 3, 2025, screenshot saved as proof. Plagiarism and theft will be pursued.

Theme: Live well, and flowers will bloom for you