The General Is Delicate and Frail

[A Resilient Physician with the World in Her Heart VS. A Brilliant Young General]

1.

Jiang Xiyu was clever from a young age. After inheriting her family’s medicine shop, she ran it well and lived a peaceful, stable life.

But then her country fell. In the chaos of war, her family was slaughtered, and she was beheaded by the barbarians.

Reborn, she is determined to change the fate she suffered in her past life and keep the genius young general guarding the western frontier from an untimely death.

When General Huo’s younger sister suffers from uncontrollable bleeding, with no help from the Imperial Medical Academy and every physician in the household at a loss, Jiang Xiyu kneels and uses acupuncture to bring her back from the brink of death.

When the Vice Commander of the Imperial Guards suffers a sudden epileptic seizure, the household’s advisors panic. She steps in, stabilizes his condition, and snatches his life back from the King of Hell.

When a refined young madam suffers from postpartum eclampsia and depression for two years, Jiang Xiyu writes a prescription and prepares a bowl of medicine, rekindling a light that was about to go out.

The two elderly imperial physicians in the pharmacy go from looking down on her to bowing their heads. The look Huo Shanquan gives her shifts from scrutiny to uncertainty, then from uncertainty to something complicated, and finally to something tender.

But there is more than just his gaze that he cannot explain.

That day, she kneels in his study, waiting for his final judgment.

They call her a spy, a traitor, an orphan of unknown origins, and demand that she be executed.

But she did not travel thousands of miles from Guandong to Luoyang just to die here...

In desperation, Jiang Xiyu blurts out:

"I have never once left Guandong City in my life. I risked everything to travel thousands of miles to Luoyang because, years ago, I fell in love with the general at first sight and could never forget him. That is why I have remained unmarried all these years."

The young general is so handsome he looks almost severe. He stares at her, stunned, and says nothing.

Jiang Xiyu lifts her lovely face, tears glistening in her eyes as she gazes at him and murmurs:

"I went walking in spring, with apricot blossoms blown all over my head. Which young man on the road is so dashing? I would give myself to him and spend the rest of my life with him."

2.

Huo Shanquan is struck by a deadly poison.

Jiang Xiyu watches him grow weaker day by day, until he can barely even sit up by himself.

The general, who should be brimming with vigor, has his sharpness softened by illness into a fragile, sickly air.

His lips are cracked with thirst. The water jug is within reach, but he cannot lift it.

Want a drink?

Jiang Xiyu picks up the jug and slowly approaches.

He raises his eyes, a faint longing spreading through them.

But she does not feel like indulging him so easily.

A mischievous thought strikes Jiang Xiyu. She reaches out, grips his chin, and gently parts his lips, pouring water into his mouth slowly, with no room for refusal.

Huo Shanquan tilts his head back at her direction, passively accepting the water.

Warm water slides down his throat into his parched gullet. His wet eyelashes tremble softly, and his eyes are filled with embarrassment, dependence, and an indescribable tenderness.

The sense of having him completely under her control intoxicates her.

The hand supporting the back of his head tightens slightly, her pale fingertips sinking into his dark hair.

His breathing turns ragged, and water drips onto his clothes.

He is too weak to pull away even an inch, and can only let her do as she pleases.

So, in the end, which of them is the other’s captive bird?

3.

Huo Shanquan has always been certain that Jiang Xiyu loves him.

And he is willing to bow his head, offering her his proud spirit and all his glory.

Until one rainy night shatters every one of his delusions.

Rain pours down. She stands before him, her expression cool and detached, quietly watching him, disheveled and lovesick.

So every word she said that year, claiming she loved him, was a lie.

So their nights of tender intimacy and her refusal to leave his side when he was poisoned were all a deception.

Pain explodes in his chest, and overwhelming fury sweeps through his entire body.

Malice surges in Huo Shanquan’s eyes, but his face instead twists into a chilling smile.

Jiang Xiyu cries out as he seizes her wrist.

A kiss laden with anger and obsession crashes down, and pain stings her lips.

She hunches her shoulders and tries to retreat, but he holds her firmly in his arms.

"So what if it was a lie?"

"Since you went to such lengths to lure me into your trap, then you will deceive me for the rest of this life, the next life, and every life after that."

Reading Guide:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other’s first and only, happy ending.

2. The setting is fictional, with many original liberties. Please don’t nitpick historical details.

3. The blurb has been revised. The poem in it is from Wei Zhuang’s "Si Di Xiang."

4. The career plot unfolds gradually, while the romance is a little melodramatic.

5. There is absolutely no BL content. Please do not ship the characters as a BL couple.

Here’s a preview of my next planned novel, "The Hu Woman’s Rise to Power." If you’re interested, visit my author page and add it to your collection!

[An Ambitious, Vengeful Hu Woman x A Radiant, Beneath-the-Surface Scheming Crown Prince]

Ai Yalan looks like her late Huji mother: dazzlingly beautiful, yet with an added touch of gentle vulnerability. A vermilion mole at the corner of her eye is especially striking.

After all her family dies, she goes to seek help from her father’s old friend and schoolmate. But he appraises her greedily: "Grand Academician Yan is over sixty and still needs a beautiful concubine."

She does everything she can to escape, but is captured and made a slave. Bruised and battered, she tricks a handsome young male slave into helping her flee.

They run together all the way, barely making it through. Once they reach safety, she feels she has done more than enough for him, and turns to head for the grasslands alone, leaving him behind.

The frail youth slowly opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is the girl’s stunning, otherworldly face. His eyes fill with admiration, but she is looking at the jade pendant hidden in his pouch.

His breath is weak, and his voice is hoarse and dry from being unconscious for so long. He speaks softly: "Did you save me?"

The girl, with bright eyes and pearly teeth, hesitates for a moment, then changes her mind and smiles. "I did... So how are you going to repay me?"

Crown Prince Li Zhen brings a peerlessly beautiful woman back from the western frontier, keeps her in the Eastern Palace, and cares for her attentively every day, never leaving her side.

But lately, rumors have quietly spread through the palace: the beauty who vanished for days has eloped from the Eastern Palace with the hostage prince of Wei.

People whisper among themselves, but whenever they catch a glimpse of the crown prince’s inscrutable expression, they all fall silent.

At first, Li Zhen only looks after her because she once saved his life.

But with the girl constantly by his side, speaking softly and clinging to him, he assumes that she is devoted to him. In time, he too begins to fall for her, unable to stop his gaze from seeking her out.

Until one night at a palace banquet, he sees her eyes glimmer as she looks toward the hostage prince of Wei. Her gaze is filled with a thousand feelings, her excitement and ardor unlike anything he has ever seen from her.

Fury surges through his heart. But before he can act, she vanishes from the depths of the palace, using the cover of night and the chaos of the flames.

Three years pass in a flash. The crown prince of old is now the emperor, ruling the realm.

Then his secret guards bring him news of her, and he follows the trail.

He sees her dressed in lavish clothes, holding a child in her arms as she heads out to watch a horse race.

The instant their eyes meet, she trembles and shrinks back timidly.

Years of repressed love and resentment surge forth all at once. The kindness between them has long since been obscured by the turmoil in their hearts.

This time, he will never let her escape his side again.

From a powerless Hu woman to empress, Ai Yalan did two things right:

First, she took advantage of the balance of power between the two nations and audaciously impersonated a foreign princess.

Second, she made the crown prince lose his head over her, and had him welcome her as empress with a bridal procession stretching ten miles.

Theme: My fate is mine to decide, not Heaven’s.