The Young Madam's Guide to Training Her Husband

[Upcoming novel: Moonlight Over the Courtyard. Please add it to your list!]

A stubborn, clingy wolfdog pup x a cold, scheming orphan

. Marriage first, love later; older woman and younger man

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Li Qinghe, the biggest playboy in Anping County, learns that his mother, Madam Du, is preparing to find him a bride. The woman's family is stern and respectable, she has lost all her elders, and she's a full three years older than him.

In short: a stuffy old maid, a jinx, an old woman.

Young Master Li would rather die than give in. He creates one mess after another until Madam Du has no choice but to pretend to be ill and force Li Qinghe to comply. But he secretly makes a deal with his fiancée: they will have a sham marriage and part ways as soon as his mother's health improves!

When he lifts the bride's veil on their wedding night, Li Qinghe is stunned.

Who brought the fairy from his dreams into his bridal chamber?

But the young master is stubborn to the bone. Even if she's a celestial beauty, he refuses to share her bridal bed.

His new wife, however, is nothing like he expected.

She's gentle and kind, knows how to deal with people, never lectures or restricts him, and even offers advice and helps him win people's loyalty.

Li Qinghe finds himself unable to live without her. He promptly forgets about their “fake marriage” and spends every day hoping his wife will let him sleep in her bed.

Until

He accidentally lifts the corner of her painted mask.

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At fifteen, Yan Wenqing went through the darkest time of her life. Her grandparents died of illness, her parents perished in an accident, and she was left alone to hold the Yan family together.

Everyone used the rules of propriety to pressure her, trying to tear a chunk of flesh from the softest target.

She refused to accept it.

By appearing open and honorable in public while using every underhanded trick in private, Yan Wenqing managed to keep the family business afloat and endured until she was considered an “old maid.” When Madam Du sent a matchmaker, Yan Wenqing gladly accepted. The marriage would give her access to the Li family, a commercial giant. Li Qinghe was only a minor flaw in the arrangement.

Even if that flaw was uneducated, a poor judge of character, and fond of women and fun.

A sham marriage? Just a way to placate a child.

All she needed was to win her in-laws' approval. As for Li Qinghe, he had no say in the Li family. Let him waste his time on frivolous pursuits, then find him a job and send him away so he wouldn't be underfoot.

Who knew the biggest playboy in town would change his ways?

He was dutiful outside the home and obedient inside it. Every day, he kept his bright eyes fixed on Yan Wenqing, like a dog catching the scent of meat, anxiously circling nearby whenever his master gave him a cold look.

Yan Wenqing said “No” with her lips, but the boy's sincerity gradually melted her frozen heart.

Until he asked her with reddened eyes, “Who is this ‘Lang of the Ravine’ you keep calling?”

Yan Wenqing smiled.

“Since we agreed to a fake marriage, why don't we make good on it today?”

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1. The title is pretentiously elegant and doesn't scan properly. Please don't overthink it.

2. There are misunderstandings, but the puppy will tear up the BE script.

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My ongoing novel Moonlight Over the Courtyard is looking for readers. Here's the blurb:

[A seemingly sweet, calculating sister-in-law x a proud younger brother-in-law driven to obsession]

When Fan Mengniang married into the Xie family, she heard that Xie Yu'an, her husband's younger brother and the family's second son, was a phoenix who had flown out of a sparrow's nest.

Brilliant and gifted from a young age, with striking looks and an open, honorable bearing.

By comparison, the elder brother, Xie Yucheng, who only managed the family estate, was far less impressive.

The most outrageous thing he had done in his short life of just over twenty years was defy his mother and marry a mere flower seller as his principal wife.

After her husband died, Fan Mengniang thought she would spend the rest of her life alone in the Xie family home.

But her mother-in-law, Madam Qin, gave her a bottle of pills.

“These pills will help you conceive, but taking too many will harm your health.” Madam Qin told Fan Mengniang to keep the bottle safe.

With no one else to rely on, Fan Mengniang had no choice but to go to the capital to “look after” her younger brother-in-law.

She knocked at his door late at night, lifted her tear-filled eyes, and softly called to the cool young man beneath the moon, “Brother-in-law...”

At first, Xie Yu'an strongly resented his widowed sister-in-law, the Lady Fan.

She ought to remain chaste for his late brother.

But Fan Mengniang was gentle and kind, weak and easily bullied, and she needed his protection.

At some point, he began to feel genuine loathing for the word “sister-in-law.”

After placing first in the palace examination, Xie Yu'an resolutely refused the young emperor's offer to arrange a marriage for him, determined to care for his sister-in-law for the rest of his life.

They depended on each other and were closer than family.

Mengniang could only ever be his sister-in-law.

Until an imperial edict named Fan Mengniang the Lady of Wei, and the young emperor, still unsatisfied, even ordered that Fan and Xie address each other as brother and sister from then on.

At last, Xie Yu'an understood what the young emperor had been after all along when he repeatedly tried to arrange a marriage for him.

Fan Mengniang had gone to great lengths to secure a place in Xie Yu'an's heart.

But getting any closer was harder than reaching the heavens.

Just as she was growing troubled, an unexpected imperial favor caught her completely off guard.

On the day the edict arrived, Xie Yu'an rushed back from work without even changing out of his official robes. He pulled Fan Mengniang tightly into his arms. “Sister-in-law, we'll always be together, won't we?”

“Mm,” Fan Mengniang replied, embracing him in return.

But the expression hidden from everyone else was thoughtful.

Fate could not be defied.

In the end, Fan Mengniang entered the palace as a consort.

With tears in her eyes, she confided all her troubles to Xie Yu'an. From then on, the emperor's favor never wavered, and she was made Noble Consort. Resentment and attacks against her in court grew ever more fierce.

One rainy night, Noble Consort Fan held an edict of deposition and knocked on the Xie family gates.

“He's always suspicious that you and I still have feelings for each other.” Fan Mengniang covered Xie Yu'an's eyes with a sash, her voice distant. “Yu'an, I won't suffer this injustice...”

But when the wind died and the rain stopped, the emperor himself arrived at the Xie residence to invite the noble consort back to the palace.

Not long afterward, the consort became pregnant and was made empress.

When the emperor passed away, Empress Fan held her young son in her arms and ruled as regent.

Three years later,

Xie Yu'an learned an old secret.

When Fan Mengniang had first come to the capital seeking refuge, the first person she met was the late emperor.

In the palace chambers late at night, Xie Yu'an bit her ever-beguiling lips and demanded angrily, “What am I to you, really?”

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1. The female lead isn't a virgin, but the male lead is. The second male lead is also chaste at first, but takes concubines much later, which is why he becomes the late emperor. (Smiles.)

2. The female lead won't give up the power she's gained.

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There are lots of upcoming novels on my profile. Feel free to add them to your list. Your love and anticipation are my greatest motivation to write!

Theme: Only by treating others sincerely can you earn their respect.