Spring Sunshine

This story is complete. My new novel, "The Little Lady with Scallions and Ginger," picks up right where this one leaves off. Please add it to your favorites!

This time I'm taking a stab at a mystery and detective story. Whether I pull it off depends on your support, dear readers!

Blurb:

A ravishing young widow who schemes to get her way VS a loyal, righteous, sickly young general

The rain fell on, and no one noticed spring had passed. Only when the skies cleared did they realize summer was already deepening.

Xia Yi has many remarkable qualities: she is breathtakingly beautiful, skilled in lightness kung fu, an excellent archer and rider, and a "soulful singer."

She just has terrible luck: her parents died when she was twelve, leaving her to wander the streets. At eighteen, she married for the first time, only for her husband to die in battle three days after their wedding.

Xia Yi and her mother-in-law, two widows, one old and one young, travel to the capital to seek help from their wealthy and powerful distant relative, Fu Xiangheng.

General Fu is very busy. His main job is training soldiers and fighting wars. On the side, he shields the young emperor from attacks both open and covert. In his spare time, he has to keep the emperor company as he indulges in wine and women.

Lately, the general has been driven to distraction by Xia Yi. He quietly complains to the emperor: "She's newly widowed, and I hear she has quite a temper." He doesn't dare mention that the little widow snuck into his bedroom and pressured him to take her as a concubine.

The emperor, who meddles in everything but never anything important, slaps his thigh and laughs. "Widows have their charms. An oblivious man like you, Fu, is just the right match for one. Take her in."

Unable to disobey the imperial decree, Fu Xiangheng reluctantly takes Xia Yi as his concubine.

Only after they marry does he discover that, while she may not be good at running a household, on the battlefield she hits whatever she's told to hit. Of course... later on, she even conquers places he never told her to.

Years later, Fu Xiangheng stands on a mountaintop, gesturing toward the rivers and mountains as he asks Xia Yi, "Ayi Xia, are all these cattle and sheep ours?"

Xia Yi smiles and curtsies. "This humble concubine may not be much, but I can give Your Majesty an empire..."

One-on-one romance from start to finish, both leads pure! Lighthearted and funny, no need to take it too seriously.

Theme: War is hard to write, so let's love peace