The Canary’s Guide to a Comeback

The year the flames of war swept across Beiping, everyone knew that Marshal Lu was cold-blooded and ruthless, decisive in killing.

Jiang Yuan, newly returned from studying abroad, is forced into an arranged marriage. She flees in the night, only to be captured and brought back by his men.

Lu Zhenyao presses his pistol beneath her chin and smiles. “Madam, in these turbulent times, nowhere is safe except by my side.”

She bites her lip and pretends to obey, while secretly stealing his confidential documents, sabotaging his arranged marriage, and blowing up his ammunition depot.

Then one day, as she is pilfering files, he suddenly pins her in his arms.

The man strokes the little hand she uses to steal intelligence, his voice tender and lingering. “Have you had enough?”

“If you’re still angry, why not steal my heart too?”

Jiang Yuan yanks off the wedding veil she has worn all day. She casually tosses the heavy phoenix crown, encrusted with pearls and agate, onto the wedding bed covered with a bright red mandarin-duck quilt. It lands with a dull thud. The candlelight flickers, illuminating her clear eyes. There is not a trace of the shyness or joy expected of a newlywed bride in them, only a barely restrained urgency and resolve.

She did not spend three years studying abroad just to return and become a warlord’s caged songbird, especially not for Lu Zhenyao, the living devil whose reputation could frighten children into silence.

What Lu Zhenyao needs has never been a hothouse rose or a canary in a cage. He needs a blade for his scepter, someone he can trust to take charge of Jiangbei if he is ever bedridden.