ShuiShu

Meili is a once-in-a-generation beauty raised in secrecy in the inner courtyards. To keep her safe from the palace concubine selections, her family conspires to make everyone, including her, believe that she's ugly. The secret's revealed when 3 peeping Tom’s get more than they bargained for spying on the 'ugly sister' bathing.
The perverts are best friends, a young commander, the second prince, and an admired poet, and the 3 young men compete fiercely for her affections. As Meili emerges from 16 years in seclusion, her deeply rooted body dysmorphia has hilarious consequences as she misreads her interactions with men and proves to be a far more complex puzzle to woo than any of them are equipped for.
A cdrama romcom where a young girl is a glittering prize trying her hardest not to be won.
[#teen #lovequadrangle #historicalromance #romcom #chinesedrama #sweetromance] 
EXTRACT: Meili slipped out of her robe and sat on a ledge in the warm pool. Her long black hair cascaded down her back, tiny silver bells tinkled as she moved.
It felt wonderful to be free of her chest binding. It was starting to get quite painful. She didn't dare stop wearing it in case it encouraged her already disconcertingly large breasts to keep expanding.
It was onto this scene that the Commander, the Prince and the poet happened, as they soundlessly raised their heads above the peaked roofline. For a full minute not one of them moved or breathed.
Her long hair covered her generous curves, allowing tantalising glimpses. She reached behind her neck to push back her hair.
Commander Bai, realising what was about to happen, clamped each of his hands firmly over the eyes of the Prince and Tan Bowen. A fight broke out on the ridge-line as the men clawed and scratched in a panicked attempt to see what came next.
Meili looked up in fright, just as the commander forcefully pushed his two friends, sliding them down the steep rooftop.
For just a split second, the eyes of Commander Bai and Meili met.

Sharing a Pavilion With You

With her head still spinning, Meili found herself being shown to her room in the palace by a young eunuch.

Tricky trotted at her heels, attracting stares wherever they went, but giving Meili the comfort of a little piece of home accompanying her. She missed Manni already…

She had no idea how she would find her way back through the maze of the palace to this little courtyard, but here she was.

It was a small courtyard with a plum tree in the middle casting some welcome shade, a large water barrel under the tree. Otherwise it was all paved, and Meili immediately missed her own lush green courtyard with the hot spring and a pavilion. She never thought she would miss that courtyard once she left it!

"Two other court ladies live here," said the eunuch, indicating two other rooms that opened onto the same courtyard. "Zhao Yuli and Xu Jingshu."

Meili nodded. It would be nice to have some female company, and also not to live alone.

Chess Piece in Play