Synopsis
(This was an attempt at writing a novel to suit popular tastes. The author gradually took the story in a different direction, so it was stopped at the most suitable point... You could also say it was abandoned.)
Just after getting off the high-speed train, Lin Lan was on her way to an academic conference about the daily records of the emperors of the Ning dynasty. As she entered the venue, someone bumped into her when she stepped over the threshold with her left foot first. She staggered, her head spun, and her vision went black. When she opened her eyes again, she had become the youngest daughter of one of the Ning dynasty’s greatest officials.
Wonderful, wonderful! She’d soon be living the comfortable life of brewing wine with pine blossoms and making tea with spring water...
Lin Shangjin? Was her father Lin Shangjin, who would be thrown in prison six months from now, dragging his whole family down with him?
Lin Lan didn’t want to be sent to the entertainer’s quarters and forced into prostitution alongside her mother.
To change her tragic fate, Lin Lan became a fortune-teller, but her fieldwork went a little awry. She nearly sabotaged the future emperor who would be revered for all time, making it impossible for him to ascend the throne.
At the time, Emperor Guang of the Ning dynasty, Jiang Lexi, was still seen by the world as a carefree, arrogant young man, brash and without a calculating bone in his body.
He loved weapons, was skilled at riding and archery, could draw a carved bow until it was round as the full moon, and had a bold, dazzling appearance. Yet he was modest and courteous toward civil officials, and everyone loved him.
Lin Lan hadn’t meant to harm him, but things didn’t go as planned.
After being provoked time and again, this “sunny and cheerful” young man could no longer take it and decided to drop the act.
To break a man, you had to slowly grind down his pride and destroy his mind with punishments like scrubbing, pouring molten tin, disemboweling, and forcing him to wear a heavy cangue.
Breaking a woman was much easier: take her chastity, and the weight of social norms and propriety would bend her back for you.
That’s right, Lin Lan was the woman her childhood friend loved.
But Jiang Lexi knew even more clearly that Lin Lan was a demonic charlatan who had bewitched the emperor, a corrupt official consumed by ambition. She had openly entered government as a woman and deceived his father.
Now, he was going to take the stage himself and break her.
This was something Jiang Lexi would deeply regret in the future.
But in this moment, facing Lin Lan on the bed, her eyes bloodshot, hair disheveled, and looking as if she wanted to devour his flesh, Jiang Lexi trembled, almost unable to control himself.
“Lin Lan, you deserve this.”
“You deserve this.”
Under his hoarse, calm judgment, he was the first to shed tears.
[A ruthless, possessive, love-struck male lead vs. a miserable, laid-back female lead forced to get back on her feet]
Lily of the valley is a plant with pure, beautiful blossoms and a delicate fragrance.
The flower has a modest, innocent appearance and a sweet, ethereal scent. Though its language of flowers is “happiness is about to arrive,” every part of it, from the roots and stems to the flowers and fruit, is poisonous and must not be touched.
Notes:
1. The main couple are each other’s only partners. The male lead becomes a ghost later on (though physically, he’s human), but he’s very sunny in the early chapters and doesn’t skulk around in the shadows. This is a sweet story, not an angst-filled one.
2. The main text is just as simple and blunt as its straightforward title. It is very, very, very unserious, with no classical flavor, and has a generally lighthearted, unconventional tone.
3. The Ning dynasty is a parallel-world version of the Ming dynasty. It would have been easier to tag it as a time-travel-to-the-Ming story, but I set it in a fictional world because the story is unrealistic and I didn’t want to disrespect history. From the start, assume it has the fully developed Ming-era system of grand secretaries, eunuchs, and civil officials who drafted memorials and approved them with vermilion marks, as well as the eight-legged essays. Its general level of prosperity is modeled on the peaceful, wealthy period after Emperor Xuanzong of Ming’s policies of recovery. Its social attitudes are modeled on the openness and freedom of the later Ming. Some inspiration for the wrongful cases, loyal officials, and disputes over the succession in the story comes from Iron Xuan, Yu Qian, Zhang Juzheng, Emperor Shizong of Ming, and Emperor Shenzong of Ming, though there are differences. In short, it’s all mashed together. I figure if I make it varied enough, no one will be able to pin it down or research it. Details will differ for the sake of the plot (for instance, young men in this story don’t grow beards. It’s a decision that goes against our ancestors’ traditions, but sorry, the male lead just can’t have a magnificent beard). It wears the Ming dynasty as a shell but is fundamentally fictional. Please don’t nitpick the history.
4. Although it isn’t tagged as a wish-fulfillment story, it should qualify as one.
Content warnings:
1. Simple, amateur-style writing.
2. A clean, non-explicit story.
3. The romance only begins after the female lead becomes an official.
Rare characters:
Lin: Perhaps seeing the three characters in “Lin Xiangru” will jog your sleeping memory.
Xi: Pronounced with the first tone.
Theme: Don’t lie flat
