A Touch of Spring

Next up: Pick Up My Rotten Bones. Feel free to check it out in my author profile~ Powerful eunuch hero x sweet, gentle heroine Song Weihe’s family was condemned and confiscated. By imperial decree, she was married off as the daughter of a disgraced minister to Yin Qisheng, the commander of the Eastern Depot. Rumor had it that he was cruel and ruthless, decisive in his methods, and so powerful that he had already stripped the emperor of his authority. Terrified, she could only call out timidly, “Chief Eunuch…” The man gave a faint snort, and she dropped to her knees. On their wedding night, Yin Qisheng scared her to tears. She understood that the man before her was no longer the little eunuch who had once been bullied by everyone. The first time Song Weihe saw Yin Qisheng was outside her father’s study. A man’s furious voice rang out: “You rootless thing! You’re an eyesore. Why would I have a filthy wretch like you deliver letters?” She saw the seventeen-year-old clench his jaw and retreat outside, about to rush into the rain. She had only recently been brought into the Song family and didn’t know the rules. When she saw a eunuch, she called him “Eunuch.” “The rain is so heavy. You’ll get sick if you go back like this.” She kept her voice low, probably so the people in the study wouldn’t hear her. Yin Qisheng still looked young. He rubbed his fingers together, gave a soft laugh, then bowed slightly. “I wouldn’t dare, miss. If you’d like to call me something, you can call me Xiao Qizi.” A few years later, he had the Song family condemned. Song Weihe married him, a eunuch. “I can’t give you the pleasures a normal married couple shares, but… these hands and this mouth of mine were made for you. Are you satisfied, my wife?” Yin Qisheng had no shame at all, saying all sorts of things that made her blush and burn. He remembered how Song Weihe clung to his shoulder as she caught her breath, while his hand stroked her spine, soothing her bit by bit. Naturally, he had plenty of ways to please her… He could make her swoon in bed and bring her a taste of spring with a single finger. One-on-one, both leads are sexually inexperienced. A note: “One” here is an intensifier, as in “a bellyful of anger” or “hands covered in mud.” It means “full of.” Content warnings: The heroine has a distant relationship with her scumbag father. The family really is condemned and confiscated; her father was not framed. The hero is a real eunuch and not a good person. The hero is strong and the heroine is weak; this is not a strong heroine story. The heroine is laid-back. The setting is fictional, so there is nothing to research. What I say goes. Coming soon in my author profile: Pick Up My Rotten Bones Fan Qing is an orphan. The only person she has is her gentle and refined fiancé, Xiao Chengchu. One day, she happens to learn that her fiancé will go to the capital to take the imperial examinations and then marry a wealthy young lady, leaving her to wait in vain. Fan Qing: “…” What nonsense. I don’t believe it. Until one day, Xiao Chengchu takes her hand and, as if reciting from a storybook, says exactly what she had heard before, his eyes full of tenderness: “Qingqing, when I return, I’ll marry you properly and bring you into my family.” Fan Qing hesitates. “…Could you just not go?” Xiao Chengchu: “All right. I promise.” Then her fiancé dies. She weeps and wails, consumed with guilt, thinking she should have let him go after all. He dies on a desolate mountain. An old Taoist points out a place and tells her to find his bones and call back his soul. On the seventh night, shadows crowd the trees outside her door, rustling loudly. Someone knocks. A man’s voice is low and gentle, as if whispering into her ear: “Qingqing, it’s me.” “…” Fan Qing falls silent as she looks at the letter in her arms. It says: “Qingqing, I had no choice but to do this. Once I return, you can punish me however you like. All is well. Don’t worry about me.” He might as well have stayed dead. Xiao Chengchu was already on his way to take the examinations, so what was the thing she had picked up? Who was outside her door? A cold wind rustles past. In the wilderness, she picks up a pile of rotten bones and summons a demon. Whenever Fan Qing’s consciousness begins to fade, the demon cradles her face and murmurs, “Qingqing, Qingqing… Say my name. Lu Shiyun.” A red flush spreads through the shadows at the corner of his eyes. “My wife picked up my rotten bones and lent me her yin energy. In that vast field of graves, she found herself a demon.” “I’ll repay you for gathering my bones and burying me by letting my withered bones grow fragrant and warming your bedcovers until you’re lost in pleasure.” Theme: Growing through love, then becoming resilient and striving forward.