A Happy Land Beyond the Horizon [Roadside Wuxia]

The Capital's Number One Wicked Woman has fallen for a little beggar who steals chickens and dogs?

A blurb written by Hao'er:

My name is Hao'er, and I'm a beggar. I may not have made much of myself in the Beggars' Sect, but at least I can scrape by.

Recently, a woman has gotten herself tangled up with me. She's the kind who takes lives.

Her name is Xi Susu. She looks a few years older than me. She's pretty, neat, and can play the zither, but she's not quite right in the head.

Most people go to temples to burn incense. She goes to tear them down. Fine, let her tear them down, but she just had to drag me along, too.

I didn't want to do it, so she shot me in the leg and dragged me back to the brick kiln where she lived to treat my wound.

I was baffled. "If you knew this was how things would turn out, why shoot me in the leg?"

"If I hadn't shot you in the leg, would you have come back with me?"

Damn, that's a good point.

I tried to run away again and again, but in this rotten world, even the gods in the temples eat people.

In the end, I really did tear down temples with this crazy woman and flee for our lives together.

What? You're telling me we have to tear down the other three temples, too?

That's practically... asking for death and making enemies of the whole world!

But Xi Susu says the Four Directions Temples can use music to make people obey, so we can fight back with songs and zithers.

We're both fugitives. I can sing, sure, but where are you going to get a zither? That busted one we found, with two strings missing?

Xi Susu pointed at a tree and said, "Cut it down."

I had to flee for my life and make a zither along the way, all while she bossed me around. If she's so good at making mechanisms, why doesn't she do it herself?

Xi Susu said she was teaching me a skill. Once I learned how to make zithers, I wouldn't have to worry about going hungry.

I could tell she was just lazy.

The zither wasn't fit for display, so Xi Susu asked me to give it a name.

It was the hour of the tiger, and the moon was about to set. I thought of her walking toward me with the glow of the Thousand Autumn Temple's flames behind her.

It had been the hour of the tiger then, too.

I said, "Let's call it Moon at the Hour of the Tiger."

She carved those words into the back of the zither, then added a line beside them: "At the hour of the tiger, dawn's faint light, the waning moon still in the sky. Take the paulownia, pluck the strings, and wait for daybreak to sing."

I asked her what it meant. She said it meant we should wait until daylight to play the zither.

Later, we carried that zither with us and sang against the Four Directions Temples all the way to offending even King Li.

As for Xi Susu, the Capital's Number One Wicked Woman, she's nothing but a plaything of mine, Hao'er.

Xi Susu says I'm like a wild dog that can't be tamed.

I raised the crossbow I'd stolen and aimed it at her. "Be my little wife, Hao'er-sama, and I'll spare your life!"

Then she tied me up beside the stable, leaving me to pour my heart out to the horses.

You wicked woman, you think this will make me obey?

No! I'll say it here and now. I, Hao'er, will never submit!

*Sharp-tongued, unruly little beggar x beautiful madwoman, fallen young lady

*An unconventional wuxia road story, centered on tearing down temples, with elements of an ancient band. Each volume features a song

*The romance is slow-burn, with a story of growth amid coercion, moral conflict, and cruel circumstances

*The title comes from "The Big Rat" in the Book of Songs: "A happy land, a happy land, where I may find my place."

Theme: Even when mired in the mud, keep searching for the promised land your heart yearns for.