I Should Get My Senior Brother First

[The male and female leads share dreams + childhood friends]

Yi Jianxue has three senior disciples, and every one of them is rotten to the core. They only care about wealth, status, and having a good time, with not a shred of honor.

Ever since they received a lucrative offer from corrupt officials and their cronies, her three senior disciples have worked diligently for the rich and powerful villains: beating up righteous sects, killing their people, stealing their treasures, and sabotaging their plans. They earn fortunes, then squander them just as quickly.

Yi Jianxue urges them to quit while they can.

Her senior disciples shake their heads and tell her she doesn't understand: few people in the martial world meet a good end. Since none of them are likely to meet one anyway, they might as well earn more money and enjoy themselves.

Yi Jianxue can't get through to these rotten men, so in a fit of anger, she spends all her money first.

Her rotten senior disciples are left to go earn a living, tears in their eyes.

In their fourth year of working, two of them die.

Those who never expected a good end get exactly what they expected.

Yi Jianxue closes the eyes of her two dead senior disciples without shedding a tear.

"They're dead. You're going to die sooner or later, too." She turns to the only one left. "Are you still not going to quit?"

The only one still alive is her eldest senior brother, Mei Zhenqi.

He's a rotten man with a fiery temper and ruthless methods, but he's happy to let her treat him like a dog.

"You only live once, so you should live it to the fullest. Why be afraid of dying?" Mei Zhenqi says. "Just come burn incense for me every year."

Yi Jianxue says, all right.

So he's going to live life to the fullest, is he?

If she can't talk him out of it, she might as well get her hands on him first.

Then, when he dies, she won't have any regrets.

Her eldest senior brother is going to die sooner or later anyway. What's wrong with letting her have some fun with him?

*

On the first night after following her three senior disciples to Chang'an, Yi Jianxue has an erotic dream.

She can't make out the person's face, but the dream is infinitely sensual, vivid as reality.

She wakes up from the dream and sits there dazed, when she hears a fellow disciple outside the window, puzzled:

"Why did Eldest Senior Brother and Little Junior Sister both get up so late?"

Only later does Yi Jianxue realize how good her eldest senior brother is to her.

All the gold and silver in his purse, his life, and the feelings in his heart: whatever he has, he can give her.

Even that dream of passion and desire, he shares with her.

-Reader's Guide-

1. One-on-one, both leads sexually inexperienced.

2. Ordinary people of the mortal world, neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

3. Extremely low fantasy, with a touch of the fantastical and a court-politics setting.

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A preview of my upcoming novel: "Capturing Love and Longing"

Wen Shuangwu dies alone in a demon's lair while fighting evil and protecting the righteous.

But when her soul returns to the Nine Hells, she finds a storyteller's utterly absurd tale waiting for her.

The book says she is the early-dead, cherished white moonlight of an all-adored heroine story: pure-hearted, exceptionally gifted, peerlessly graceful, and doomed to die young.

After she dies, her charming, fickle fiance goes white-haired overnight and completely changes his ways, leaving his rakish past behind. Her cool and self-possessed master is heartbroken, regretting that he let her sacrifice herself for the righteous cause. Her stern, cold parents mourn their child with white hair, regretting that they had only asked her to pursue fame and fortune, never wishing her a safe life.

So when the beloved heroine, who looks just like her, appears, her parents, master, and fiance all transfer their affections to the new girl and dote on her like a precious jewel.

The book sighs: Only after Wen Shuangwu's failure did they learn how to cherish someone.

Reborn through a stroke of good fortune, Wen Shuangwu returns to her sect. Seeing the old faces fawning over the heroine, she remembers the bleak years of her past, and all those feelings finally melt into a carefree smile.

"Don't trouble yourselves." Her expression is calm and serene as she looks at her old acquaintances, their joy tinged with panic. Her voice is gentle but firm. "I won't be coming back."

She survived a brush with death to return from the Nine Hells, but her home is no longer home, and her loved ones are no longer hers.

So what?

The world is vast, the universe boundless. Wherever she goes, she can make a home.

*

Xie Cangliu has always known that he's a bit player in a book, with barely any scenes.

He is exceptionally gifted, hailed alongside the male lead as one of Northern Cangzhou's Twin Jewels, and is the male lead's good friend.

Unlike the male lead, who's a flirt in the beginning and becomes dignified later, Xie Cangliu is openhearted and cheerful, a loyal friend with a wide circle of companions. He would never betray a friend in his life.

Yet only Xie Cangliu knows that when he sees Wen Shuangwu staring into space, for the first time in his life, he has a selfish thought that is anything but honorable.

He wants to steal her away from the male lead.

"Feng Jue really doesn't know how to cherish you." Xie Cangliu gently wipes the dirty blood from Wen Shuangwu's fingers and sighs softly. "If I were him, I'd have already given you my heart and soul, Junior Sister Wen. I'd follow you in life and die for you. Why would I ever look at anyone else?"

As a bit player, Xie Cangliu has always lived with utmost seriousness.

In this life, he has few lines to his name, and the only love affair he gets is one he takes from someone else.

Theme: Cherish the present and the people beside you