A Fortunate Draw

*Preorders for the print edition are now open! See Weibo @Jiu Chi Tu Wo for the link. Thank you for your support!

*The next sweet romance is "Grape Soda." Scroll down to see the blurb.

When Shen Li was seventeen, she went to Samye Monastery to draw a fortune stick.

The top line read: "Spring comes late, while flowers and trees flourish."

It was the worst fortune.

Unwilling to accept it, she asked a kind-faced monk in red robes to interpret the fortune. He replied with only three words: "Don't force it."

Clutching the stick, Shen Li sat beneath Mount Habu all afternoon. The next day, she went home and crossed out the university she had long dreamed of attending as her first choice.

After the college entrance exam, she carefully wrote on the wooden stick, "Gu Ting, congratulations on graduating. May your studies bring success and everything go your way." Then she hung it on the school's old banyan tree and said goodbye to her unrequited love, which had never had the chance to begin.

-

On a business trip, Shen Li made a detour to visit her cousin, who was still in college. She had barely stepped inside when she came face-to-face with the last person she wanted to see.

With the corners of his eyes slightly lifted and a smile that curved like a crescent moon, it was none other than Gu Ting.

Back then, she had been proud and high-spirited, and everyone knew she was pursuing Gu Ting. Now, she was only afraid he'd think she was still clinging to him.

In a moment of panic, Shen Li threw an arm around her cousin, who was three years younger than her. Keeping her expression composed and her tone calm, she said, "Son, come say hello to Uncle Gu."

Gu Ting's gaze shifted between the two of them. After a long pause, he said with an ambiguous smile, "Classmate Song, how come I never knew you had such a young and beautiful stepmother?"

-

One day after they got together, they returned to their alma mater. On a whim, Shen Li climbed the old banyan tree and found the wooden fortune stick among its low branches.

Someone had crossed out the words on the front and added two lines of elegant, flowing handwriting.

"Spring is nearly here. May you return soon."

"Thank you. I wish you a bright future, a perfect match, and nothing but the best of fortunes."

*

Woman pursues man / reunion after a long separation

*A sharp-tongued young master who says one thing and means another, and his natural nemesis

*Straightforwardness is the natural enemy of snark

Blurb for "Grape Soda":

After an accident in childhood, Lin Tao developed aphasia.

The doctors said her inability to speak stemmed from a psychological disorder. The Lin family doted on their little princess, born to them late in life, and spent over a decade searching the world for a solution, but nothing seemed to help.

Until Wen Zhixian came along.

Wen Zhixian was unlike anyone Lin Tao had ever met.

He was gentle and witty, and would secretly take her to the back garden to feed canned food to the stray cats.

He would also slowly tell her in sign language, word by word: "You're beautiful."

Yet the man who was gentle and composed by day was tormented by insomnia every night. Listening to other people's troubles for so long had left Wen Zhixian anxious and restless. He could only fall asleep with the help of medication.

On yet another night, Wen Zhixian woke from a nightmare with a splitting headache. He smashed a vase, gripped a sharp shard, and stabbed the pillow again and again.

Amid a flurry of white feathers, a pair of frail, pale hands wrapped around Wen Zhixian from behind.

"Wen Zhixian." It was the first time Lin Tao had called him by name. Her voice was hoarse and trembling. "Hold me..."

No medicine could cure him.

Only Lin Tao was his remedy.

-

Lin Tao had once been kidnapped. Another boy was held captive with her.

While the kidnappers weren't looking, the two of them cut through the ropes binding their hands and feet and ran for their lives, only to end up in a dead-end alley.

In the silent alley, footsteps drew closer and closer.

Lin Tao clutched the boy's hand, as cold as her own, like someone falling off a cliff grabbing the only lifeline within reach.

The boy hid the tiny Lin Tao in a trash can. Before the last sliver of light disappeared, she saw the tenderness and resolve in his eyes as he gestured for her to be quiet.

[Don't speak.]

Theme: Staying true to one's original intentions