Tan Nu (Reborn)

[The title has changed. This story does not involve BL, so feel free to enjoy it.]

The Yue family had a servant, a handsome young man whom the eldest daughter had plucked from among the courtesans.

They grew up together and could be called childhood sweethearts.

But the year Yue Qingning came of age, the young man was suddenly driven away. From then on, he hated the Yue family and brazenly attached himself to the crown prince.

He later rose to power and became a high-ranking official, framing the loyal and virtuous, doing every manner of evil, and turning on his former master, biting the hand that had once fed him.

Yue Qingning spent her whole life being outmaneuvered by him. Their childhood friendship meant nothing beside the words "in my way," and in the end, he framed her and had her killed.

Reborn, she tried to kill him and failed. She wondered how she could sever the rotten bond between him and the crown prince.

Simple. Train him like a dog: first, beat him; second, scold him; third, pat him on the head.

Once he got used to it, he'd come running back after a slap to ask if her hand hurt. He'd go east when she said east and never dare go west. Then she could use him as a handy tool to bring down his wicked master.

But as the days went by, the puppy's constant sweet talk became hard to bear.

At her bedside, sick and bedridden, he knelt with his eyes shut and pleaded with her. "Miss will always be my master. In my heart, you alone are the one I acknowledge."

He even managed to spin a lie before His Majesty, claiming, "I have no other wish but Qingning."

Qingning refused to believe him, and didn't dare to. But late at night, the puppy who wagged his tail and begged her for affection climbed into her bed, his eyes rimmed in red.

"You love so many people in this world, yet you won't show me even a little kindness."

Qingning found it vexing when he took her hand and pressed it to his face, but she couldn't figure out what had happened to this man who supposedly preferred men.

The utterly confused Que Ming: ...Who likes men? Me?

Que Ming carried a deep family grudge. He survived for six years amid constant danger, barely clinging to life, until the Yue family took him in and gave him a little respite.

He should have been heartless and devoted to revenge. But during the long years he spent lying low, he fell in love with Miss.

He knew he was mired in a swamp. He would do anything, no matter how filthy or vile, to achieve his goals. But time and again, Miss reached into the darkness and helped him to his feet, telling him to stand tall in the sunlight and stay by her side for the rest of their lives.

So Que Ming had no choice but to be a gentleman.

He buried his filthy thoughts deep in his heart. Even if he was only pretending to be a virtuous man, who could say he wasn't truly a saint after keeping up the act for a lifetime?

Notes:

1. The male lead remained chaste and pure in both lives.

2. The crown prince likes beautiful people.

3. The bonus chapters will include an alternate version where the male lead lived his previous life.

New Book Preview: My Possessive, Amnesiac Lover

When Gu Lianjun woke up, she heard that the young heir of the Duke's estate had suffered an accident and lost his memory.

She was overjoyed. Ever since she had been abducted from her cousin's side, she had been imprisoned at his country estate and abused at his whim for three years. At last, heaven had shown her mercy. Yu Huai'an had reaped what he sowed and lost his memory because of the accident.

She gathered up the hairpins, jewelry, and silver he had given her, and dressed herself in neat clothes fit for an ordinary married woman. She waited for the Duke's estate to send word, so she could finally regain her freedom, leave the man who had stolen another man's wife behind, and never see him again.

But she waited from morning until midnight. The Duke's estate was so quiet, it was as if they had forgotten she existed.

Gu Lianjun wondered if she should send someone to remind the elders of the Yu family.

Instead, the amnesiac heir stayed up late and came to see what the woman he'd confined at the cost of his own reputation actually looked like.

Gu Lianjun stood by the bed at a distance. She saw the heir, who no longer recognized her, and heard him impatiently call out to her.

"Come here! You have no manners. What makes you think you could ever catch my eye?"

Gu Lianjun bit her lip, hesitating for a long time. Then she lifted one corner of her skirt, revealing a gold chain tied around her slender ankle, pale as soft jade.

Under Yu Huai'an's increasingly astonished, confused, and disgusted gaze, she spoke quietly.

"You personally fastened this chain around my ankle, saying it was to keep me from changing my mind. But the past is gone, and we're both different now... Could you let me go? That way, you can preserve the good name for which you're praised throughout the capital."

Perhaps her words moved him, because Yu Huai'an really did set her free.

For the first time, Gu Lianjun stood in the bustling streets of the capital. She had nowhere to go and no money to her name, but she was overjoyed. The whole world lay open before her. Where couldn't she go?

Not having to wait for that man to come home in a tiny courtyard was already reason enough to burn incense and pray to the gods.

After thinking it over with her less-than-brilliant little brain, she decided she might as well go find her cousin.

She had no idea that Yu Huai'an, who had once been deeply disgusted by having a mistress, was growing more and more unhinged. He followed her, spied on her, and kidnapped her, then returned to his old habits and hauled her back to his estate outside the capital.

Gu Lianjun was on the verge of tears. "Didn't you say indulging in women was against the proper way of a gentleman?"

Yu Huai'an replied, "Desire is the blossom of the Way, and love is the bud of human nature. Even the Daoist sages say so. How could I dare defy the natural order?"

When Yu Huai'an woke up, he heard two pieces of bad news in quick succession.

First, he'd been in an accident and lost his memory.

Second, before losing his memory, he'd kept a beautiful concubine outside the capital. Everyone in his clan, and the whole city, knew how much he doted on Gu Lianjun.

After hearing the news, Yu Huai'an chuckled. There was no woman who could make him abandon his image as an upright, self-disciplined gentleman.

He wasn't some pleasure-seeking playboy...

He was sure the woman had deliberately seduced and framed him. The self-righteous gentleman threw off his brocade quilt, put on his outer robe, and insisted on seeing what kind of enchanting creature had led him to this point.

But the moment he saw her, he felt a faint crawling sensation in his heart. The more he saw her, the stronger it became.

Could he have fallen into this woman's trap?

He couldn't believe it, so he let her leave. But...

Who could have guessed that the first thing she did after leaving was go find her cousin!

By any reasonable measure, how could she go back to the man who had abandoned her? He was merely being kindhearted and couldn't bear to see someone from his past fall into destitution. So Yu Huai'an decided it would be better to bring her back and keep her by his side, caring for her himself.

Theme: Sincere love can overcome every hardship.