Guiding Ghosts

Updates are tentatively scheduled for nine every evening. I'm recovering from a serious illness and getting my writing groove back.

[Blind, laid-back heroine × mountain demon | Everyday life of a couple | Happy ending]

Shen Wan realized something was off about her husband.

They had been married for a little over three months. She was blind and frail, and could barely take care of herself, so her husband handled everything for the entire household.

Fortunately, the dowry her mother had given her was generous, and the man chosen as her husband was hardworking and steady, someone who knew how to make a living.

So even though the couple had to live frugally, they had enough to eat and stay warm.

Then her husband went to a mountain temple to pray for her. Three days and three nights passed without a word from him.

The villagers all said that he had run away because he couldn't stand having a blind wife.

But Shen Wan was still lucky.

Her husband came back, and he cherished her even more than before.

Only... the faint smell of blood in the middle of the night, the muffled, restrained screams that occasionally came from the courtyard, and the coldness of the person beside her in bed all reminded her

The thing that had come back was no longer the person she knew!

And yet... Shen Wan felt the clothes folded beside her bed and ate the red-date and coix-seed porridge her husband had just brought her. She quietly swallowed the question that had risen to her lips.

Never mind. Whoever it is, they're the one taking care of her. Besides, she's blind, so she can just pretend not to know!

#The emperor star dims in the netherworld; the dark crown gathers dust, and the Dragon Abyss goes unrecognized for a thousand years

#On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the gates of the underworld open, and daylight breaks through

#All the mundane things in this world are nothing beside two blind souls meeting spring again

* The heroine is frail, and the couple are almost always together. Strong male lead, weak female lead, entirely focused on the two of them.

* A short story, written to indulge myself. Romance makes up eighty percent.

* One-on-one, happy ending, both leads' first time.

Here's the blurb for my upcoming book, Offering the Moon

The Great Ling was a mighty nation, but its imperial family had few heirs. There was only one princess, Su'e.

Each morning she had her makeup done with powder ground from South Sea pearls. In the afternoon, she rode through flower gardens, let her cat torment the young aristocrats, then headed to the Fragrant Garden for a lovely pot of fruit wine. Life was wonderful.

Emperor Ling was at his wits' end. He appointed the top scholar of the imperial examinations to teach her, but she lashed him with her whip, mocked him, and gave him a hard time. Then, as an afterthought, she broke his Duan inkstone and walked away.

Xiao Su'e was a scourge, yet no one could restrain her.

Until the Northern Army rebelled, Emperor Ling was assassinated, and the capital plunged into chaos.

Overnight, Xiao Su'e became a fugitive.

With the help of a loyal servant, she escaped through a secret passage, only to be ambushed and poisoned into unconsciousness.

When she woke again, the Great Ling had changed completely.

The man who had once loathed her at first sight had become the emperor, and everyone addressed him as "Your Majesty."

Xiao Su'e was too weak to move. The new emperor's trusted aide brought her out of the dungeon, along with an edict of investiture

[Though Xiao Su'e is not of my blood, she is of noble imperial descent. I cannot help but cherish her at the sight of her. I hereby confer upon her the title of Princess Yuehua and shall treat her as the apple of my eye, honoring her as a father. So ordered.]

The good news: she had survived the upheaval and could still live as a princess.

The bad news: the man who had become emperor was Xiao Jianqing, whom she had bullied for six whole years. Not long ago, she'd even ruined a keepsake belonging to his late mother.

The night before her investiture, Xiao Su'e swallowed poison without a change in expression.

A child of the Xiao family was headstrong and honest, and could never bow and scrape just to get by.

Her family was gone, and there was nowhere left for her in this world.

All Su'e wanted was to die.

A little scene:

In the third year of Tianyuan, vassal states came to pay tribute, each bearing local gifts, their processions stretching along the roads.

One small country was poor and had little to offer. It had no gold, silver, pearls, jade, horses, or fine silks. It had only one princess, as radiant as spring blossoms, whom it wished to offer to the imperial harem in place of a year's taxes.

Emperor Ling heard the report but gave no answer.

He was about to turn away when his gaze passed over the steps below

At a single glance, his expression froze.

Su'e, are you well?

Theme: Be content with what you have