The Concubine's Fragrant Boudoir

For a sheltered young lady, there’s no greater humiliation than having three marriage arrangements fall through.

The first time Xia Xiu’an was betrothed, the groom-to-be suddenly came down with a serious illness and nearly died. The arrangement was off.

The second time, the groom-to-be suddenly went mad. The whole city heard about it, and everyone laughed. The arrangement was off.

The third time, the groom-to-be moved straight into a Taoist temple to become a monk. You can’t force a melon to be sweet, so that arrangement fell through too.

Xia Xiu’an, who had transmigrated, was at her wits’ end over the mess left by her predecessor, whose intelligence seemed to be below zero. If she wanted any chance of living a decent life, she had to salvage this dreadful situation.

Xu Lanning, the second son of the Marquis of Dechang’s household, was said to be a bookworm. He could have coasted on his family’s good fortune, but instead he studied himself to exhaustion. Unfortunately, he wasn’t particularly bright, and even with his family pulling strings, he only just managed to pass the imperial examinations and become a minor official. He was over the moon.

The boy came from a wealthy family, was frail and easy to bully, and had repeatedly been confirmed impotent. Xia Xiu’an thought he was the perfect choice for a husband she could boss around as she pleased, without any threat of retaliation.

She had no idea someone had seen through her weakness and was laying bait, drawing her into a trap one step at a time.

“Aren’t you too weak to even tie up a chicken? What are you doing?”

“I may be too weak to tie up a chicken, but how could I be too weak to hold down my own little wife?”

“Wait, you shameless thug, what are you trying to do? Aren’t you impotent?”

“I mean, with a pack of wolves circling outside, every one of them eyeing you, how could I get them to hand you over to my bridal chamber without lifting a finger?”

“You liar. You absolute liar. I’m not marrying you!”

“Whether you marry me or not is up to me. It’s too late to change your mind now.”