Gu Desire

Shen Liying was in love with Crown Prince Ying Chen. She once risked her life to save him, but her elder sister took the credit by mistake. Later, she followed the deposed Ying Chen to his fief and risked her life to find a gu master to treat his eye condition, only to hear Ying Chen speak with cold suspicion. "I suspect she put a love spell on me."

Ying Chen's cold words made Liying, hidden in the shadows, tremble. To give him what he wanted, Liying put a love spell on him. For a year, she led Ying Chen through every kind of intimate caress and passionate entanglement. When an imperial edict arrived from the capital, Liying had grown tired of this charade and decided to leave.

In the endless darkness, a small glowing lamp cast its light over two entwined silhouettes. Liying's fair face was flushed, her inner robe loosened and disheveled. Someone buried their face against her neck, while their movements drew passionate sounds from her.

"Ying Chen." Liying panted softly. The person above her raised his head, his handsome face flushed with desire. As she looked at him, a tangle of emotions crossed her eyes. She raised a hand to his neck and pulled him toward her, then whispered slowly, one word at a time: "Ying Chen, this is what it looks like when I put a love spell on you."

The second daughter of the Shen family, who had served the deposed crown prince in her elder sister's place, died, while the deposed crown prince regained his title. Two years later, among the beauties presented to the emperor, Ying Chen fixed his dark gaze on the figure he had held in his arms countless times.

He lowered his head and drained his cup, thinking, "I've found you, Yingying."

The love spell Liying cast clashed with the spell inside Ying Chen, so it could not make him desire her. From beginning to end, Ying Chen knew perfectly well that he had long desired Shen Liying, fallen in love with her, and lost his heart to her.

1. A devoted couple with no other romantic partners, old-school melodrama. The male lead treats the female lead poorly at first, then pursues her later. He dislikes her elder sister, and the female lead will run away.

2. The protagonists grow and change dramatically between the early and middle-to-late story. No children.

Cover used with permission from Yi Ye Shu / Lu Shan

Theme: Only by staying true to yourself can you remain true to the end.