A World Beneath the Inkstone, Plum Blossoms Fall as Bianjing Turns Cold

I fear the little boat on the Twin Streams could not bear the weight of all this sorrow. A tale of intrigue and suspense from the start... Assassination. Confiscation of the family estate. A woman disguised as a man, secrets from the past, and a new bond as beautiful as flowers reflected in a mirror. “Song Dynasty’s foremost heroine in historical fiction” meets “a genius girl detective.” It’s a blockbuster from the start. The Li family’s daughter is coming of age. Every volume has its own unforgettable scenes: “Betting books and splashing tea,” “Divorcing her husband in open court,” and more. Pure satisfaction. The Jingkang Incident... Her story follows her flight, carrying her through a life of hardship and displacement. Her body holds a near-demonic intelligence and a legendary spirit. A childhood legend buried by history, an eternal song written in blood and tears. Northern Song, Emperor Shenzong’s reign, the seventh year of Yuanfeng, the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, the night of the Kitchen God festival... At six years old, she used an inkstone to deflect a hidden arrow aimed at her father, Li Gefei. Before that night, she was a gifted girl from Qizhou who saw through a forged letter, outsmarted an ambush, and exposed the court’s tangled schemes with a single remark. After that night, she met the boy who could continue her “Like a Dream,” and stumbled upon the blood and lies beneath the officials’ robes of her father’s generation, stains that could never be washed away. Cai Jing seized power, and Li Gefei was demoted... When the iron hooves of the Jingkang disaster shattered Bianjing, she was no longer the girl who had “drunk so deeply she knew not the way home.” From the ultimate sweetness of childhood sweethearts and love after marriage to the devastating cruelty of political entanglements and human weakness. Half the history of the Song Dynasty, written as a life! Cai Jing is her cousin’s husband... Qin Hui is her cousin’s husband... Is the handsome young man from that snowy night still the one with whom she can “bet on books and savor the fragrance of spilled tea”? This novel is also known as The Adventurous Life of a Genius Girl.