Feast of the Seasons

Name: Feast of the Seasons
Author: Azure Haze and Stopping Clouds

岁时宴

by Azure Haze and Stopping Clouds (青霭停云)

Status: Completed
Length: 2.4M Words
Genre: Ancient Romance
Subgenre: Mystery High-Concept
Updated: 9mo ago
English: Request a translation

Read on Fanqie

Synopsis

Female-led story, female painter, empress, three lifetimes of Chinese-style court intrigue; an empress and a financier both reborn; capital theory; the secrets of seasonal cuisine; a romance with a top think tank. Introduction to <Feast of the Seasons>

**First Life: Blood on the Brush, a Vermilion Brush Ruling the Realm**

Shen Zhibai, daughter of a disgraced minister, astonishes Chang'an with her painting. The foolish emperor sets a trap and forces her to paint <The Officials at Play> as bait, but she conceals the lives of the conspirators in the splendid colors of the twenty-four solar terms. The tender green of the new willows at the Start of Spring hides the Imperial Guard's deployment; the ochre of the woods at Frost's Descent points to a corrupt official's secret residence. During a palace coup under cover of night, she wields her brush to transform the realm, ultimately donning the imperial robes and taking her place atop the ninefold palace. When she looks back, the young general Pei Yanzhi stands outside the hall, silently wiping vermilion ink from his sword as he keeps watch over her.

Once she ascends the throne, her vermilion comments on memorials shape the realm. The memorials on her imperial desk are divided into three stacks: urgent matters receive a cool stone blue, matters of the people's livelihood a warm gamboge, and factional strife is buried beneath a dense shell white. Even the seasonal treats from the imperial kitchen conceal secret messages: the lamb-fat pastries served at Minor Snow contain the chilling figures of military funds embezzled on the northern frontier. He is always there, standing below the ninth step, using his iron-fisted authority to suppress every restless ambition that would tear apart the empress's edicts. Brush and sword together guard the land through the peaceful years.

Third Life: Reborn in Ink Wash, Finance Shapes the Storm

At the pinnacle of Wall Street, the lock screen on Chinese-American executive director Shen Zhibai's tablet is the timeless <A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains>. Deep within the Palace Museum, she is an expert restorer of ancient paintings, her fingertips tracing a thousand years of ink marks. When international financial predators swoop down like vultures to target the renminbi, the deadly hedging model she deploys somehow draws on the secrets of the long-lost Northern Song brushstroke technique known as “silk fishing-line texture”! The rhythm of ink wash is reborn in candlestick charts, and the secrets of ancient paintings

Stats

279Chapters

3Reads · 30 days

66.2kReads · all time

6.4Score

More by this author

The Reborn Housewife

In booklists 19

Any High-Quality Mind-Bending or Mystery Novels?

Looking for books similar to "The End of Ten Days". That book is an eternal god!!!!!

594Books527.1kViews2dUpdated

Any Similar Suspenseful, Imaginative Stories?

Mystery and imagination + heir to Taoist traditions + urban supernatural powers + criminal investigation + forensic medicine. I'm not here to catch ghosts, but to help the lost find their way back.

72Books6.2kViews5dUpdated

Wuxia Stories With Rankings for Masters, Beauties, and Geniuses, Like Shaolin’s Eight Masters and the Carefree Sect

Wuxia with rankings for top fighters, beauties, and geniuses, like Shaolin’s Eight Absolutes or the Carefree Sect.

389Books2.4MViews13dUpdated

Any Stories About Transmigrating into Martial Arts Worlds Across the Heavens and Stealing the Heroines and Female Leads?

436Books2.2MViews14dUpdated

Underworld Story: The Female Lead Is a Killing Goddess Who Can Kill with a Glance

125Books437.5kViews24dUpdated

Any Stories Set in the Martial World, with a Poor Protagonist and a Female Emperor Heroine?

Are there any martial arts stories where the male and female leads are separated? The female lead is of noble birth, while the male lead is a commoner. She’s forced to leave him, but eventually goes back to find him. Anything like that?

356Books1.4MViews29dUpdated

Looking for Heartfelt, Angsty Stories Set in the Martial World

Are there any stories where the male lead is a wandering martial hero and the heroine is a wealthy young lady? She should be adorably naive and sweet, but not stupid. In the male lead's eyes, there are only two kinds of people: the heroine and everyone else. Please, please! Is there anything like this?

66Books530.9kViews1moUpdated

Looking for a Book with a Female Protagonist Named Lin Qianyou

The heroine is named Lin Qianyou. Her biological mother is murdered, and her scumbag father abandons her. She's later adopted by the royal family and becomes the eldest princess. She and her best friend start a gang together.

172Books1.1MViews1moUpdated

Moe Academy Derivative Stories

I'm looking for books like The Saintess's Mission in Moe Academy. Are there any Moe Academy stories without transmigration or rebirth?

349Books1.2MViews1moUpdated

I'm Out of Things to Read! Any Books With a Cool, Badass Heroine With Special Skills?

It can be about miracle doctors, antiques appraisal, a war god, or mystery. I just want the female lead to be really badass.

730Books1MViews1moUpdated

Invincible Protagonists, No Romance, Nonstop Thrills, and Smart Leads Who Aren’t Goody-Two-Shoes

I'm looking for books like Fistfighting the Protagonist's Growth Squad and Stomping on the Villain's Grave Grass.

506Books1.1MViews1moUpdated

Taoist Novels Set in the Interstellar Era

A Taoist priest in the interstellar age, with cultivation techniques, Taoist arts, and mecha.

210Books484.7kViews2moUpdated

Looking for a Satisfying Story with Clear Logic, a Well-structured Plot, or Humor. Any One of Those Will Do.

Please recommend stories with clear logic, a well-organized plot, humor, or a satisfying power fantasy. Any one of those is fine. I read romance and stories with two male leads, and would prefer completed books. Keeping up with ongoing ones is just so exhausting 🥺🥺

232Books34.6kViews2moUpdated

Any Wuxia Stories with a Cute Kid and No Romance?

I’m looking for books like "The Beloved Little Dragon: Be Brave, Fear No Hardship".

477Books432kViews4moUpdated

Urban Fantasy, Pokemon, System

Modern-day Pokemon, ten Systems.

298Books1.5MViews4moUpdated

Any Wuxia Novels with a Powerful Male Lead and a Princess as the Female Lead?

112Books587.9kViews5moUpdated

Looking for a Novel Where the Protagonist Uses the Ethereal Sword Style

It'd be great if Quezhou also had the Twelve Evil Deeds of the Satu, All of Them Empty.

254Books310.1kViews5moUpdated

Any Stories Where a Female Assassin Transmigrates Into an Adorable Child in Ancient Times?

They need to be an assassin. Cultivation or wuxia is fine too. Also, the heroine should be doted on by everyone, but be independent and have her own career and future prospects.

359Books660.6kViews5moUpdated