Two Hearts, Both Delighted

After passing the imperial exams, Cui Yanchi is eager to make a name for himself. His first harsh lesson from reality is being half-coerced, half-forced into marrying Ren Yanyan.

You can force someone to marry, but you can't force their heart.

On their wedding night, Cui Yanchi storms out and slams the door to show his displeasure with the marriage. Ren Yanyan pulls off her veil with her own hands and gives him just as much attitude.

Did this bookworm think I wanted to marry him? I'd be thrilled to divorce him first thing tomorrow!

Not long afterward, word spreads throughout the city that the triumphant new third-place palace exam graduate was left outside in the cold all night. His friends are outraged and urge Cui Yanchi to divorce his wife.

"Every household has its own troubles. There's no need for you all to worry," Cui Yanchi says with a troubled look, politely declining their well-meaning advice.

Then the political winds shift, and Cui Yanchi is sent three thousand li from the capital. Everyone assumes that the pampered Ren Yanyan will divorce him and marry someone else. Instead, she packs her bags and follows him to the wilderness without a word.

Some marriages are forced, and the couple can't stand the sight of each other. But these two grow happier the more they see each other.

Reading guide:

1. This is a completely fictional setting, utterly fictional, and not remotely historically researched.

2. The plot is sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, angsty, sweet, sweet, sweet, angsty, sweet, sweet, sweet. They fall in love, and that's all there is to it!

Blurb for my next novel, The Princess Won't Carry a Pipa:

After her father the emperor dies and a new emperor takes the throne, Xiao Qi, the younger sister of the new emperor's defeated rival, is banished a thousand li away by imperial decree to become a princess sent off in a political marriage.

Xiao Qi travels west with a pipa in her arms, believing this is her fate. She never expects Huan Xian to break through the encircling troops amid the vast, windblown sands and seize her arm, covered in blood.

He says to her, "Princess, come with me."

Xiao Qi looks into Huan Xian's eyes and thinks for a moment, then decisively smashes the pipa in her arms, the symbol of her longing for home and her boundless sorrow.

Whoever wants to be this poor thing can take the job. She's not doing it!

First she flees south, then heads north. In the end, Xiao Qi returns to the capital with her late brother's unborn child in her arms and his battered remnants of an army at her back, becoming the exalted Grand Princess.

During those years spent far from home, never knowing if she would live to see the next day, a quiet, upright young man is always by Xiao Qi's side, through every high and low.

In his dreams at night, all he sees are her bright, star-like eyes and her faint smile.

A little scene:

In the bright morning light, within the dark red bed curtains embroidered with winding peonies in the Grand Princess's residence, Xiao Qi, for the one hundred and eightieth time, hugs a pillow just as she once hugged her pipa, then eagerly reaches out toward Huan Xian.

"Say it," she urges with a beaming smile.

Huan Xian is at a loss for words as he looks at the beauty before him, her hairpins askew and her face radiant with triumph. For the one hundred and eightieth time, he sighs helplessly, then says what she wants to hear: "Princess, come with me."

Message: Even surrounded by thorns, hold fast to your ideals and face adversity with courage, trust, and honesty.