Coveting the Empress Dowager

- One woman, three men: father-and-sons feast / stepmother romance / both stepsons desire their stepmother / bittersweet, slightly angsty

- A beloved princess of the Central Plains dynasty is caught up in the love and hate of three fathers and sons after marrying into a foreign tribe

- The heroine is a bright little ray of sunshine. The scheming, refined ruler is 18 years older; the aloof eldest son is 3 years older; the brooding, obsessive younger son is the same age.

Blurb:

Zong Shanshui is the emperor's beloved youngest daughter, a princess born of the empress, treasured like a priceless gem.

But the Great Ning dynasty has suffered defeat, and Northern Yan's cavalry still occupies the border, poised to strike.

Northern Yan sends an envoy to request a Great Ning princess's hand in marriage, ostensibly to end the war, but really to humiliate them.

As the emperor and his ministers discuss who should be sent, Zong Shanshui volunteers:

"As a member of the imperial family, I ought to help my country through this crisis.

"I will marry him."

For the greater good of her family and country, she can only keep in her heart the youthful dream of love that can never be revisited.

After the wedding, Zong Shanshui goes to the ruler's study as tradition dictates. As she grinds the ink, her mind is troubled. She keeps wondering whether anyone saw her holding hands with Li Jun at the wedding banquet.

"Come here." Before she can react, ruler Li Chuji pulls her into his arms and carefully wipes the ink from her fingers with a handkerchief.

"Shanshan, do you know my son Jun'er?"

Zong Shanshui avoids his gentle gaze and lowers her head.

"Yes."

While traveling in Great Ning, the ruler's eldest son, Li Jun, fell in love with her, and they secretly pledged themselves to each other.

But by the time they met again, they had become stepmother and stepson.

She has let go of the past and settled into life as the Queen of Northern Yan, but Li Jun still won't leave her alone.

When the ruler remains silent for a long time, Zong Shanshui asks nervously,

"And then?"

"And then..."

Li Chuji kisses her cheek and murmurs a few words to her.

When she understands what he said, Zong Shanshui's cheeks turn red.

He says he wants a daughter as adorable as she is.

Outside the study, the ruler's younger son, Li Ce, comes to report on official business. As he stops at the door, he hears the intimate sounds within.

Just imagining how she is being pleasured... stirs a ripple in the depths of his eyes, dark as a dry well.

The night Li Ce escorted the princess to Northern Yan with his troops, he already knew her secret with his elder brother, Li Jun.

He watched the two of them press their foreheads together, jade ornaments chiming as they touched eyes long dimmed by darkness.

The moonlight on the grasslands was pure and dazzling, yet it never shone on him.

An accident takes the ruler's life without warning.

While his elder brother is away at war, Li Ce alters the edict and takes the throne.

On the night of the wake, he dismisses everyone and pins his nominal stepmother against a table.

The ruler's memorial tablet is enshrined beside them.

"Mother, you were the wife of both Father and Eldest Brother. It's time you repaid the debt of affection you owe me."

Zong Shanshui raises her hand and slaps him twice, only making him more excited.

Li Ce binds her hands with silk and forces her to look at him.

"I will treat you and my sister well. I will never let her be married off to another country. She will remain Northern Yan's most honored princess forever."

"But everything must be repaid in kind. How will you repay me?"

As white candles weep wax, her plain, pristine sash slips to the floor...

Inside, passion and desire intertwine. Outside, the rain falls without end.

When Li Jun learns that his father has died and his younger brother has usurped the throne, he leads his troops into the palace.

He also learns what has become of the woman he loves, and rushes toward the wake with his sword drawn.

At the moment he pushes open the door, all he can think is...

Shanshan, don't be afraid. I'm back.

Reader's guide:

1. The first and second male leads are sexually and emotionally inexperienced, and share the same parents. The third male lead is their biological father. The heroine has been intimate with all three, in the order 1-3-2. Not suitable for readers who insist on a pure one-on-one romance.

2. A true stepmother romance, with a father-and-sons feast involving three men. The story has both a tragic ending and a happy ending where all four are together.

3. While married to one of them, the heroine has no intimate scenes with either of the other two.

4. Please heed the angst tags. This is more heartbreaking than any of my completed works.

Theme: The vast grasslands cannot give birth to narrow love.