Does Master Believe Me Today?

Lu Qingci, the Sword Venerable who once chilled fourteen provinces with a single sword, is dead.

Everyone says he died at the hands of the "sword" he raised himself.

*

When Chi Qianlan first met Lu Qingci, she was filthy and as wretched as a stray puppy no one wanted.

Everyone said the Sword Venerable, a prodigy famed from a young age and as cold as snow, despised filth.

Yet he bent down and held out his hand to her.

"Come with me."

And so the "wicked girl" who had roamed the streets, hated by everyone, became the Sword Venerable's only disciple.

Still, Lu Qingci was never gentle with her. He gave her a name, taught her to wield a sword, and kept her by his side to train her personally.

Everyone in the sect said Lu Qingci was far too strict with her and had never shown her the slightest warmth. Chi Qianlan thought so too.

But the medicine that appeared outside her door just when she needed it, and the warm hand on her forehead when she burned with fever, made her waver despite herself.

That day, the sword slipped from her hand and clattered to the ground. Chi Qianlan's confidence fell with it.

The scolding she expected never came. Lu Qingci took the hand she normally used to wield her sword.

"There has never been only one path to the Dao. Cultivating the sword is about cultivating yourself. If the sword holds you back, then cast it aside..."

The wind stirred, and so did Chi Qianlan's heart.

*

The day the sect fell, an arrow shot through the air, aimed straight at Chi Qianlan's heart.

She had no time to react before the figure in white was standing in front of her.

The arrow pierced flesh. Lu Qingci's spotless white robes turned red, and he raised a hand to shield Chi Qianlan safely behind him.

"Don't be afraid."

*

Lu Qingci had eyes that could see fate.

He had witnessed too many people's endings. Some had their Dao hearts shattered by a single prophecy, while others, trying to escape their fate, only walked step by step toward it.

So he stopped peering into people's destinies so readily.

Except the first time he saw Chi Qianlan, Lu Qingci immediately saw that she was fated to become a demon.

Everyone said destiny could not be defied. Lu Qingci refused to believe it.

In his life, he made only two mistakes.

The first was believing in fate when he was young and watching his closest friend leave the mountain with his own eyes.

The second was knowing Chi Qianlan would become his tribulation, yet still reaching out to her.

*

My next book will be A Dragon-Keeper's Handbook.

In the art world, everyone knows Bai Ye.

She is the youngest genius painter, aloof, proud, and distant, with a world-shaking secret weighing on her.

Yin Li saw through her identity at a glance when they first met.

Yin Li comes from a prestigious family and is blessed with good looks, refined and impeccably mannered.

No one knows that Yin Li spent years plotting to win Bai Ye.

He gets close to her, saves her, and treats her tenderly.

All for the same purpose.

To make this dragon, who never bows her head, willingly lower it.

*

Having roamed the human world for decades, Bai Ye always thought she had kept her identity well hidden.

Fame, wealth, power: Bai Ye cares about none of them. Outsiders criticize her for being arrogant about her talent, and she never bothers to defend herself.

Bai Ye has never trusted people, but Yin Li's performance is too convincing.

Unlike Bai Ye, Yin Li loves perfume, suits, and everything beautiful. With a single remark about how "kindred spirits naturally understand one another," he reaches Bai Ye, and the two, once moving on parallel paths, suddenly find a point of intersection.

*

A high fever leaves Yin Li bedridden.

As his consciousness drifts in and out, he vaguely feels someone take his hand.

"...Don't go."

At the moment he feels that warmth, Yin Li, who has always been good at hiding behind a mask, takes it off without realizing. The backlash from his dragon-taming game comes too soon. The one who willingly gives in is Yin Li.

When he tries to thank her, Bai Ye answers with casual indifference:

"It's nothing. I just feel a kindred spirit's understanding for another."

Bai Ye returns his own words to him, unchanged. The one who was tamed first turns out to be Yin Li himself.

Theme: You can be loved even if you're imperfect.