A Berry in the Corner

Please add my upcoming novel, When the Swallows Return for You.

[Announcement: This novel will go on sale on Wednesday, September 15. The discounted chapters are 21-46, so please don't buy them again if you've already read them. Thank you for all your support, and I hope you'll continue to support me!]

Everyone says the beloved daughter of the Jingzhao Marquis's household, Commandery Princess Huaining, is sweet, adorable, and pure of heart.

But Ji Mian has seen Meng Wenti scale walls to escape, shove her younger brother into a lake, and secretly visit a prisoner. She's nothing like the kind, gentle little princess people imagine.

"The marquis's residence is so big. I'm really not familiar with the paths to the side courtyards."

"My younger brother slipped. I was trying to catch him."

"But Prince An is my maternal uncle..."

That is how Meng Wenti explains it.

Ji Mian bows respectfully and reminds her, "Your Highness, please watch your words."

[1]

They say the newly appointed Grand Astrologer in the capital, Ji, has a handsome young son who is skilled with a sword and has stirred the hearts of the capital's noble ladies.

But the Ji Mian Meng Wenti sees is always expressionless and businesslike. He doesn't even furrow his brow when she teases him.

She finds excuses to enter the palace and deliberately waits until classes at the Imperial College are over before leaving, all to engineer a chance encounter.

"I wake from spring sleep, unaware of dawn. Everywhere, birdsong abounds. Young Master Ji, don't you think that poem suits the two of us perfectly?"

That is what Meng Wenti says.

Ji Mian bows respectfully and reminds her, "Your Highness, please watch your words."

The princess pouts. "You're such a boring boy."

[2]

Ji Mian receives an imperial order to reclaim lost territory. As he prepares to leave, Meng Wenti makes a point of seeing him off alone. "Ji Mian, from now on, whenever you see spring flowers, summer rain, autumn moons, or winter snow, I want you to think of me."

Two years apart, she finally works up the courage to visit the man she loves on the battlefield. "Ji Mian, over these past two years, when you saw spring flowers, summer rain, autumn moons, and winter snow, did you miss home?"

What she really wanted to ask was: Did you miss me?

Ji Mian bows respectfully and reminds her, "Your Highness, it doesn't snow in the lands to the south."

"..."

[3]

Angry that Ji Mian doesn't understand romance, Meng Wenti runs off to the Temple of Buddhist Light in a fit of pique, declaring she'll spend the rest of her life with only a lamp and the Buddha for company. Instead, he arrives with an imperial edict of betrothal.

"Did Grand Commandant Ji ask for this himself? Had you already secretly fallen for me?"

That is what Meng Wenti asks.

For the first time, Ji Mian's usually unshakable composure falters. His eyes darken, an emotion beyond the ordinary stirring within them, yet he still bows respectfully and reminds her, "Your Highness..."

Meng Wenti quirks her lips and leans in to brush her own against the tip of his nose. "Your Highness, please watch your words. Grand Commandant Ji is always so boring."

She smiles like a bright red berry, newly born.

"But I like you just the way you are."

The little red berry growing by the wall has finally caught the attention of her young gentleman.

* A princess who only pretends to be proper x a genuinely proper young gentleman

* An older woman and younger man romance

Upcoming novel: When the Swallows Return for You

Blurb:

[Short version]

"Above power lies an even greater authority. At the very peak stands the imperial throne."

A rebellion case brands Yan Qing'an the daughter of a traitor. Carrying her father's sins, she obeys the imperial order to enter the palace, hoping to live out the rest of her life cautiously and in peace. But at the banquet welcoming her, she stumbles upon a plot that is hardly a scheme at all.

A man stands on the steps and saves her from danger with just a few words. She looks up to see a young man in fine robes, with vivid red bamboo embroidery at his collar and sleeves. Like the bamboo, he stands proud and upright, a paragon of integrity. One glance is enough to make her lose her heart and soul.

She thinks him a graceful gentleman, as constant as the moonlit breeze. She never imagines that this is the beginning of her entry into a game of chess, where she will become a pawn in someone's hand and be trapped in a struggle for power and intrigue...

[The rambling version]

(The author personally likes this blurb too much to delete it, so it stays. If you don't like it, skip straight to the reading guide.)

"A graceful gentleman, fresh as the breeze and handsome as the moon."

He is all the splendor of Dali, leaving a bright mark on her dim life and inspiring her to admire virtue all her days.

Many years later, surrounded by children and grandchildren, the younger generation asks her, seated at her knees, "How should one describe a gentleman?"

She narrows her failing eyes, remembering her beloved as a young man and recalling the years they shared: the heart-stopping moments when they escaped blades and bloodshed, and the aching longing of sleepless nights. She smiles and says, "Like the moonlit breeze of old."

Perhaps it is only because she knows so little that she thinks his heart holds all the magnificent scenery of the world. He is what she longs for, her beautiful dream.

Blurb revised on 2023.2.3

[Reading Guide

1. A junior female official x the Ninth Prince

2. Happy ending, both leads have had no previous partners

3. The heroine has few golden fingers. Her growth is the main course, romance the seasoning.

4. The story starts slowly, then gets better as it goes. The plot requires traps and clues to be planted throughout, with twists along the way.]

Theme: What you hear may be false, and what you see may not be true. Consider everything carefully.