The next novel, Bad Pomegranate, is in the section below.
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The Tale of Camellia is a Japanese-style otome game set against the romance of the Taisho era.
In a dazzling age where Western and Japanese civilization intertwined, it tells the story of the heroine, Naruse Tsubaki, and her tangled romances with several men.
Naruse Tsubaki was born into the long-established kabuki family Naruseya, and is the only daughter of her generation.
Yet her life is trapped in a strange cycle. Time always rewinds at a certain point, and the same stretch of her life plays out again and again: once, twice, three times...
After so many repetitions, she'd nearly forgotten when she first realized something was wrong.
It was a rainy day, and the damp gloom of the mansion made it feel like an ancient scroll soaked through with water.
When she was fourteen, she spoke coldly to her stepbrother, her younger brother by marriage but not by blood, through the thin paper door of a closet: "Get out. I hate you the most."
"I hate you more than anyone in the world."
In an instant, the sound of rain, the breath in the air, the light... everything faded like ink wash.
That's right. Time had begun rewinding from that moment.
Until one day, she finally learned she wasn't trapped in time by chance. She was inside a romance game she hadn't yet completed.
She was the game's heroine.
She had to finish every male lead's route before she could return to a normal life.
Please note:
* Set in an alternate Taisho-era Japan. Related details are based on online research.
* The heroine is not a virgin, while the men are. There is no official pairing, and the extras include alternate routes.
* This story was inspired by its setting, not by anything else. The author is a patriotic, upstanding young person!
* Mary Sue story with lots of unrequited crushes.
* One route features a pseudo-incest relationship, with no blood relation. Nothing substantial happens between them until their familial relationship ends.
Blurb screenshotted on December 25, 2025
Bad Pomegranate
Ming Can is a very spontaneous person. She does whatever comes to mind, which is why she leaned in and kissed Jiang Yue when he slowly came closer to her.
It was the summer she turned eighteen. Her wisdom tooth had been aching faintly since her senior year of high school, and now it was itching. But the moment she kissed him, the itch stopped.
They were in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. Neon signs hung all around them, red and green lights drifting across their foreheads. Headlights streaked like flowing fire, scorching two golden marks into the asphalt.
This was where they'd planned to take their graduation trip.
They'd known each other since Ming Can was ten, when she first boarded at his home. They'd never been apart since, and she thought they'd be together like this for the rest of their lives.
But he braced a hand against her shoulder and pushed them apart. Neon signs cast red and green light everywhere that day. Backlit, he seemed to lick his lips before telling her it was wrong.
So Ming Can's wisdom tooth hurt more and more. Before the trip was even over, she was crying and complaining about her toothache. In the end, she lost a wisdom tooth, and her painful, secret crush came to an end.
Later, they went back to the way things had been.
On the eve of Valentine's Day, when she was twenty-six, Jiang Yue called and asked if she wanted to spend the day together. Ming Can stammered and wouldn't agree, saying she hadn't decided yet because she was waiting to hear from someone.
That evening, the person she'd secretly loved finally asked her out. She didn't tell Jiang Yue, just as she hadn't told him about the few relationships she'd had since they separated, whether they were emotional or purely physical.
Even though they'd once been so close they seemed like one person, even though he'd pushed her away when she was eighteen, even though they were becoming more and more like real siblings.
At the end of Valentine's Day, Ming Can carried a bag of chocolates as she said goodbye to someone at the entrance of her apartment building. She slowly climbed the stairs. The motion-sensor lights switched on one floor at a time, following her footsteps, until she heard someone call her name.
She looked up. Jiang Yue was sitting at the stairwell landing, his hood half covering his face, his eyes fixed on her.
"I thought we were close enough to have no secrets from each other. So tell me, are you dating someone?"
He slowly moved toward her. Ming Can couldn't help stepping back, but he grabbed her wrist and wouldn't let go.
"But I'm so different from him. Then again, your ex-boyfriends weren't anything like me, either."
Ming Can said nothing. They stood facing each other until all the lights went out.
[Please note]
* The heroine is not a virgin, while the hero is. The heroine will have a few emotional or purely physical relationships, so please skip this if that bothers you.
* The heroine is only staying at the hero's home. They aren't related by blood.
* There are many romantic threads and lots of unrequited crushes. At heart, this is a Mary Sue story.
* Related background information is based on online research.
Theme: Love yourself
I think this route is the relatively best route that gives Chun the freedom at present. Although the family's skills and family business have not been completely passed down to Chun, at least she can get in touch with the family's practical work and have her own reputation. She is not as strictly constrained as the previous routes. From this point of view, the younger brother is really a bad guy. As soon as he disappears, the protagonist's life happiness suddenly increases. The protagonist of his route is the most miserable, and he is a vampire who occupies the magpie's nest. In fact, I don't think highly of Mao either, because he is an absolutely loyal, completely false, non-existent man, and the protagonist will never end well with him. I feel that he will bring bad luck to the protagonist. (By the way, why didn't the protagonist's father in Mao's route recruit a wife?) At present, I think this route is the best, and of course I hope Chun can have a better life.
I have been worried that the child will be a boy. If it is a boy, I feel that I have ignored Chun's plight and the plight of women, as if a woman can solve all problems by giving birth to a boy. Fortunately, she is a female heir, and although this ending is not as free as the ending of the main story, Chun fully inherited the family business and got what should have been hers, which is not bad.
It has an open ending, but life is like this, unlike stories that have a clear ending. The open ending also means that Chun has unlimited possibilities. Congratulations to Chun for finally getting the life you like and want!
Although these men each have their own rubbish points, if Chun wants true freedom, no one can choose. But currently, this younger brother is the most disgusting. The reader knows from God's perspective that he and Chun are not related by blood. From this perspective, his rise to power is completely an act of extermination. What's even worse is that he imprisoned Chun, drugged her (I really think Chun was not simply sick), cut off all interpersonal interactions with Chun, and treated Chun not as a human being but as an existence of sexual fantasy. It's disgusting, really disgusting. I really hope he can die (at least this line will die) to vent his anger on Chun.
Congratulations on the completion! It's great that Chun can live the life he wants freely!
However, I feel that this plot is like a test for Chun: Are you willing to give up the current life of self-reliance and difficulties that need to be solved by yourself and choose to go down and choose the seemingly beautiful, simple and easily accessible life of a rich wife? Or should we say reject the temptation and walk firmly and straight towards our own path? Of course, if Chun didn't desire freedom and subjectivity, she would have compromised on the previous route, but she didn't. According to this idea, the younger brother of the twin may also appear, symbolizing another temptation different from the older brother. Or maybe he represents a repetition of the image of the current older brother and will not appear again.
Except for not having a small sum of money, Xun in this chapter is quite similar to a real man. He actually wants to use his family to suppress Chun. It's really damning. What's even more ironic is that his attitude towards the current Chun and the already fiancée are very different. They are so arrogant that it makes people uncomfortable. His so-called love is so ethereal, so shallow, and his self-righteous performance is affectionate
Ichijo Kaoru, you have never shown such attentiveness to your fiancée Tsubaki.
Kaguya is quite sensible when she doesn't enter the battle mode against her love rival.
It is a very special article and I like it very much. I am sending you a long comment. When I first looked at the subject matter, I was surprised to find that it was from a Japanese background. I had the impression that there are very few works of this kind in Jinjiang. It is obvious that the author has put a lot of effort into writing it, which can be seen from the description of many details of life. The heroine Tsubaki is more in line with my aesthetics than the classic Japanese heroine. She is smart and sharp, confident and proud, and sometimes reveals her rebellious thoughts against worldly constraints. She also has considerable courage and determination at critical moments, exuding a shining personality. Each of the male guests has their own morbid flavor, but the wonderful thing is that their love for the heroine always has a begging attitude, rather than the condescending arrogance and complacency of many Japanese and Japanese films. As expected, men need to show vulnerability to look good. At the same time, Chun's identity as the eldest lady has basically always been online. Although it restrains her to a certain extent, it also provides a relatively high status and security guarantee, at least giving her time to grow up in the early stage (when mentioning the eldest lady, I think of Butterfly Poison, Yuriko's fall) Her status as the eldest lady of the Chinese family puts her in a more embarrassing position, so my favorite is the female detective line. Yuriko really left behind those decayed and corrupt things and lived a new life of self-reliance, but Tsubaki's situation is relatively much better). The first week mainly introduces various characters. The fight between brothers is already quite interesting, and the affair Kaguya is even more interesting. The pace of this part is relatively slow, and the conflict is not too intense. I personally like the description of Chun's daily life. The relaxed and happy days flow by like water. What also left a deep impression was Tsubaki's fierce resistance to go to school, Kaoru's silent patience with the heroine having a lover, and Kaguya's strong feelings for Tsubaki. Overall, it is in an embryonic state. The second week is my favorite now. Cheng's identity change at the beginning is really interesting, and the setting of the novel is really exquisite. Then the subsequent emotional entanglements among the male guests became even more exciting. Kaguya, who is still beautiful and obsessed with her, is very delicious. Kaoru's smooth acceptance beyond the boundaries is even more amazing to me. One of the details that I like very much is that Chun is keenly aware that Xun's love at first sight for her is because of the moment when he experienced love, not because of Chun itself. This kind of emotion is actually extremely subtle, but the author pointed it out, and it is really amazing. In short, Xun is really arrogant at heart, but it is true that Cheng is no match for him when he is in charge. I personally have some thoughts on the third week's episode. The changes in the timeline and the direction of the storyline at the beginning are quite good, including Chun's active self-rescue and discovery of the messages she left behind, which are enough to show her intelligence and courage. But what I want to say is that the man who saved Chun was the man who loved her. Although Chun was actively planning, the decisive factor was the help of men. Even men who were absolutely loyal and trustworthy would still make me feel slightly uneasy. Especially in the first two weeks, Chun's attitude towards male guests was relatively casual, and she had no obvious idea of trusting or relying on men. Of course, it is also the creator's preference to give the heroine a man who can be completely trusted to a certain extent, but maybe a personality like me would prefer to see a heroine who always maintains her independence. Or to put it another way, when I open a book with multiple male protagonists, what I expect is a war between multiple males with their own characteristics, rather than the emergence of a completely overwhelming male with absolute superiority, which will destroy the balance of the overall battle situation. Of course it's just my personal idea. Creation is free, and the author who creates such a work truly loves the characters he writes. The fourth episode is what I am looking forward to. The heroine has a greater identity advantage and is more mature. The dominant male guest is Kaguya, who interests me the most. However, such a beautiful and sickly character is broken and restless as a lover. I am very excited to think about whether a worse side will be exposed as the main palace. And Tsubaki currently has a very high opinion of Kaguya. After all, she is so beautiful and so attached to her. It is really an interesting development. Please keep the author updated.