War-Torn Romance

Blurb for Beacon Fires in the Red Dust

In the final years of the Republic of China, among the forests and rivers of Manchuria, the chaotic world was as sharp as a blade.

He was once Lin Mushí, a refined young man from a scholarly family. After his family was destroyed, he was forced to become an outlaw, earning the title "Third Master" among the bandits of the Northeast. She had no interest in the splendor of a wealthy family. Yin Qingyao, eldest daughter of the Yin family of Xin Zhan, willingly followed him into the storm of bloodshed. Her extraordinary marksmanship earned her the name "Jade-Faced Rakshasa."

Husband and wife, one clever and one courageous, fought their way out of a bandit stronghold on the Sanzhao Plain. They made deadly enemies of the brutal "Three Wolves of Northern Manchuria," played along with notorious bandit chiefs like Xie Wendong and Zhang Yuxin, and received secret help from her sister and brother-in-law, who lived in seclusion far from the world.

They followed the code that "even thieves have their principles" and held to the bottom line of "never robbing three kinds of people." In everyday life, they traded jokes and wisecracks, their banter full of local slang. But once they "blew the temple" and flew into a rage, they were all blazing blood in the gun barrels and boldness in the saddle, ready to take a bullet for their brothers and fight to the death!

But the tide of the times rolled on. As the Japanese invaders retreated and the Nationalists and Communists clashed, this snowy wilderness became a chessboard for competing forces. Would they remain carefree bandit chieftains, or make a life-and-death choice in the name of their homeland and its people?

See how this couple, caught in a turbulent age, uses courage, cunning, and loyalty to write a stirring legend on the snowbound lands of Manchuria!