A Long Wind Across the Ferry

【P.S. The editor asked me to tell you that both volumes of the print edition are out. Remember to buy them.】 (Former title: Marrying the Playboy) For fifteen years, Liu Yuru was the model young lady, all so she could marry a good husband. But on the eve of her engagement, she was forced to marry Gu Jiu Si, the most notorious playboy in Yangzhou. Marrying a man like that would ruin her life. And after she married him, she learned that he had been forced to marry her, too. Liu Yuru was utterly disheartened. After locking herself in her room for three days, she finally saw the light. If she’d married a playboy like him, what was the point of acting like a proper young lady? So on the third day after the wedding, the famously gentle young lady, hands trembling, knife in hand, summoned all her courage and went to the brothel. She said one thing to Gu Jiu Si, who was dead drunk: “Get up.” Gu Jiu Si’s life would be full of dramatic ups and downs. From a down-and-out playboy to a high-ranking official, this woman stood by his side, propping him up with her frail, slender body and telling him, “Get up.” So even if others broke his bones and carved up his flesh, he would struggle up from the mud, grit his teeth, carry her on his back, and make it through life with her. For Liu Yuru, the first fifteen years of her life were spent believing that she was alive to find a good man. It wasn’t until she met Gu Jiu Si that she understood: a good man makes you realize that you are alive for yourself. “May my flesh and blood shield you from the wind and rain, keeping your skirts spotless and your temples free of frost.” #May I be the long wind that carries you a thousand miles# Next historical romance, Canglan Path, coming soon: Before she turned nineteen, Jiang Yinqiu was the renowned daughter of an esteemed family of physicians in Jiangnan. She had a kind and courteous fiancé, Jiang Shaoyan, and generous, loving parents. Her life seemed peaceful and predictable from beginning to end. Then, in the year she turned nineteen, soldiers stormed into her family’s estate. Every man in the family was executed, and the women were exiled. In prison, she waited desperately for the one hope she had left: Jiang Shaoyan would clear her family’s name and rescue her from her plight. She waited and waited, but all he brought her was a dagger and a packet of poison. Jiang Shaoyan told her that the road to the border was long, and she must remember to remain faithful to him. So, dagger in hand, she turned back just before stepping out of the prison. To take revenge, she disfigured herself, took the place of a condemned prisoner, and fought her way through bloodshed. As a condemned prisoner granted a special pardon, she entered the Censorate. The day she reported to her superior, word reached the Eastern Capital that her stand-in, “Jiang Yinqiu,” had died in an accident on the way to exile. That night, the Third Prince Jiang Shaoyan, recently found among the common people, set up a memorial tablet for his dead wife in his residence. Meanwhile, Jiang Yinqiu, covered in blood, knelt in the courtyard and heard the cold voice of the Censorate’s commissioner, a man born into a prestigious family with six generations of high office, revered as a god despite being human. “Once you enter the Censorate, you belong to me, Xie Heng. Now tell me your name.” Jiang Yinqiu slowly closed her blood-soaked hand around the token on the ground, then lifted eyes as clear and sharp as a blade. “This subordinate is Liu Xiniang.” “To everyone else, he is an evil spirit. To me, he is a god.” Theme: Only by turning toward the light can you find happiness