Elder Brother

[The story blurb is second. The first is an ongoing novel, and the second is a planned novel.]

Please add my ongoing novel, The Decree of Favor, to your reading list:

Li Xu was stripped of his position as crown prince at eighteen and sent to the enemy state as a hostage. By twenty-two, he held power beyond measure.

He was cruel and cold, yet sternly self-possessed, the most formidable ruler of this chaotic age.

And yet this man was willing to bend down just to put a shoe on Lin Fengmian's foot in the freezing snow.

Everyone said the Lin family had a daughter who could bewitch people's hearts.

No one knew that in the year he was imprisoned in the inner palace, she endured the agony of having her bones scraped and fought her way through a storm of blades and spears just to tell him, "Your Highness, even if you never take that throne, one day you will become the people's hope."

In her previous life, the name of temptress followed Lin Fengmian until the day she died. Only then did she learn that she had been nothing but a pawn of Mu Jiancheng. For his sake, she had turned against everyone, only to die by her own hand, consumed by hatred. It hardly seemed worth regretting.

Reborn, she opened her eyes and threw herself into Crown Prince Li Xu's arms. Resolutely returning to her homeland, she saved her family and exposed one conspiracy after another.

People of the time said: The young lady of the Lin family is beautiful, but no one dares marry her.

Lin Fengmian smiled. That was still better than being called a femme fatale.

Many years later, as empress, Lin Fengmian was reading the history books when she finally learned that in the year she was imprisoned, Li Xu had stormed through three palace gates, slaughtered the imperial guards, and broken into Chengming Hall, all to demand of the emperor:

"Where have you hidden her?"

The emperor asked in return:

"Are you going to rebel?"

The man who once valued the people and the realm above himself replied:

"So what if I become a traitor?"

For Lin Fengmian, he let one thought turn him into a demon.

[Story blurb:]

Everyone knew the Fifth Prince was a sister-complex.

He mingled in deadly political circles and frequented pleasure houses, but whenever he left, he could always return as pure and spotless as ever.

"I'm steeped in blood and bad luck. I can't let it frighten her." No matter how great the conspiracy, he would handle it with his legs crossed and an easygoing air. Only matters concerning the Ninth Princess made him cautious.

But gradually, people began to notice that the brother seemed to have feelings for his sister beyond those of family.

Not long after, a golden age fell, the land was torn apart, and the beauty vanished without a trace.

Yan Hua returned from the front lines to smoke-filled skies and fields of snow-white bones. Eyes bloodshot, he asked, "Where's my sister?" The only answer was a deathly silence.

Northern Zhou split apart, and warlords vied for supremacy. A young man appeared out of nowhere, treating the realm as a chessboard and sweeping across half the land. Then his nature changed completely: he executed the loyal and the treacherous alike, and killed his own kin.

When they met again, everything had changed.

One was a princess sent off in a political marriage, with no control over her fate. The other had become a tyrant feared by all. Along this path, he could no longer turn back.

"Doudou, do you know that in my previous life, you were already mine?"

[Planned novel: The Fallen Diva]

Qin Yuzhi's memories began at eighteen. Everything before that was a blank.

Ever since she could remember, Shen Hewen had been by her side, teaching her to play the zither and dance, sending her to school, and taking her by the hand to high-class parties.

Everyone said she was Mr. Shen's new canary, and that he cherished her more than any of the women before her. Qin Yuzhi didn't think they were wrong.

After all, Shen Hewen was refined, witty, and unfathomable. Why wouldn't she love him?

When she woke from her long dream, memories surged into her mind like a tide. Only then did Qin Yuzhi learn that she had a fiance who had gone overseas, and that she was Shen Hewen's unattainable love.

She had her pride in the face of his deception, and he had his in the face of her loathing.

Fine. They would part ways here and never see each other again.

When they met again, Qin Yuzhi had become the fallen diva in the newspapers: beautiful, rotten.

Watching her sink deeper and deeper toward ruin, Shen Hewen drained his glass and booked passage from Japan to Shanghai.

He still couldn't bring himself to leave her alone.

Theme: No life is a failure. Never give up on yourself.