When the Swallows Return, I Await Your Coming

[Upcoming titles: With the Nation, The Luan Strings, A Thousand Autumns, I Don't Want to Be Forced into a Bad Ending with You] Scroll down below the blurb if you're interested.

This novel will be completed and become a paid work on Wednesday, August 2. The paid chapters start from Chapter 25, so please don't purchase them again if you've already read them. The full novel costs 13.5 yuan. Thank you all for your continued support, and please keep supporting me in the future.

------------ Blurb

[Concise Version]

"Above brute force lies an even more supreme power. At the pinnacle stands imperial authority."

A treason case saddled Yan Qing'an with the slur "daughter of a traitor." Bearing her father's crimes, she entered the palace by imperial decree, hoping to keep her head down and live out her days in peace. But at the welcoming banquet held in her honor, she stumbled upon a scheme that could hardly even be called a conspiracy.

The man stood on the steps and rescued her from danger with just a few words. She looked up. The young man wore fine robes, his black hair glossy; the crimson bamboo embroidery on his collar and sleeves blazed before her eyes. Like the man himself, it stood tall and proud, upright and noble. One glance was all it took for her to lose her heart and soul.

At the time, she thought him a graceful gentleman, as familiar and lovely as the moonlight. She never imagined that this would be the beginning of her gradual entanglement in a game of chess, where she would become a pawn in someone's hand and be caught in a web of power and schemes...

[The Version That Makes No Sense]

(This blurb reflects the author's personal taste, and I can't bear to delete it, so I'm keeping it. Readers who don't like it can skip straight to the reading guide.)

"A graceful gentleman, fresh as the wind, handsome as the moon."

He was the very glory of Dalin, leaving a brilliant streak of color in her dim life and inspiring her to admire and aspire toward him all her life.

Many years later, with children and grandchildren gathered around her, a younger relative nestled against her knees and asked, "What is a gentleman like?"

She narrowed her dimming eyes, remembering her beloved as a young man and the years they had spent together: the thrilling dangers they had escaped, and the heartache that haunted them in the dead of night. She smiled and said, "As familiar and lovely as the moonlight."

Perhaps it was only because she had seen so little of the world that she felt his heart held all the splendor of mountains and rivers. He was her aspiration, her beautiful dream.

Blurb revised on February 3, 2023

[Reading Guide]

1. A junior palace official x the Ninth Prince. This story follows a fallen noblewoman (the female lead) as she resists and maneuvers around the power of the aristocratic clans and the imperial court. She is not an all-powerful heroine; this is a story of growth.

2. Happy ending. The male and female leads are each other's only romantic partners (the author's preference).

3. The female lead has few golden fingers. Her growth is the main course, romance is a side dish. This is a plot-driven story with some romance, but not much. The male lead doesn't appear often, showing up only once every few chapters. The story mainly revolves around the female lead.

4. The story starts slowly, but gets better as it goes. The plot requires plenty of planted clues and hidden traps, with twists along the way.

5. The female lead goes through many hardships, and there is a lot of suffering for her. This is not romantic angst: most of her hardships are caused by the environment, not the male lead. If this is a deal-breaker for you, please move along.

6. The leads are mutually devoted and pursue each other.

7. The prologue is in first person from the male lead's perspective; the main story is in third person from the female lead's perspective.

8. The story has a lot of setup, so the early chapters may feel wordy. You can skip chapters, but you may miss some details. If you have questions after skipping chapters, ask in the comments and mention that you skipped chapters. Where necessary, I'll explain in the author's notes or reply in the comments.

9. Some official titles are based on historical research, but most are blended from different dynasties, and some are made up. Please don't read too much into them.

10. Important! This story takes place in a fictional world! It's just something the author dreamed up, and I know it won't appeal to most readers. If you do like it, leave a comment. You're like my reborn parents and kindred spirits. I bow in gratitude!

-------------------- Blurb for With the Nation

The histories of a hundred years are all passed down in some form: some buried in written records, some lost in painted scrolls, and some so rare that they survive only in the words of a handful of people.

They say a tall tower was built in the old prince's manor. They say a young woman lived there. She liked to climb the tower and gaze toward a homeland she could not see. She liked to lean against cold walls and look at a moon she could not make out clearly.

In her dreams were birds in flight, fine steeds, and a home. In her hands were blood, wounds, and a blade.

The king asked her, "Do you have no other wish?"

She smiled without answering, then drove her blade into the king's chest and fled back to her home.

"And then?"

"And then..."

Then she crossed a silent emptiness without birds, raced across a wasteland without steeds, and returned to a home without a nation.

Then she used the blade that had killed the king to slit her own slender wrist, exchanged her clothes for the finery of the dead, and drenched her land with all her blood.

And then, she was buried with her nation.

[Reading Guide]

1. The male lead loves her unrequitedly; the female lead takes revenge and punishes scoundrels.

2. Two mentally unstable people torment each other.

3. Bad ending.

-------------------- Blurb for A Thousand Autumns

[From Princess to Emperor]

Outside lay fragrant groves, splendid buildings, and lofty pavilions. Within were beaded curtains and celestial maidens. The emperor's inner palace was called the Great Within.

She stood alone in the imperial city and thought of those lines:

"The palace gates of the Ninth Heaven open wide; the crowned rulers of ten thousand nations bow before the throne."

She did not know whether the path beyond the white marble steps would lead to an endless hell or a splendid paradise. Yet she still wanted to see what her own eternal reign would look like.

She had no way back. If she lived, her name would be remembered; if she died, her name would stink for all eternity.

[Reading Guide]

Setup

*A princess who has lost her first love x a mad courtier who fantasizes about succeeding his brother, but eventually becomes a well-trained dog at her feet

*Sister-in-law x younger brother

*The female lead is not a virgin; the male lead is

-------------------- Blurb for The Luan Strings

Consort Xie of Huanqu Palace died of illness, and even in death, she lay in the emperor's arms.

Consort Xie had enjoyed the emperor's favor for half her life. On the day she passed away, the mighty Son of Heaven, so revered by all, held her cooling body and wept like a child, all the while repeating a name.

Afterward, the emperor died. The new emperor hurriedly ascended the throne, and all six inner-palace courts were cleared out to await their new master.

An elderly palace maid found a scroll in Huanqu Palace, where Consort Xie, the late emperor's most beloved consort, had lived. It was painted by the late emperor himself.

The scroll depicted a woman dressed in crimson, holding a round fan. Her face was cool as the moon, and her bearing was beyond compare. The old maid recognized her: it was the late emperor's first wife, the deceased Empress Yuan.

The old maid suddenly remembered a rumor that had circulated through the palace for years. When Consort Xie passed away, the late emperor had been so overcome with grief that he could hardly bear it, murmuring something over and over.

A bold palace servant had moved closer to listen to the two words on the emperor's lips.

A Luan. The luan in the saying, "Trust that even luan strings can break."

That was the maiden name of the late emperor's first wife, who had died young.

[Reading Guide]

Core premise: a regretful husband tries to win his wife back, while the true first love is reborn as a fake substitute.

-------------------- Blurb for I Don't Want to Be Forced into a Bad Ending with You

Delcis transmigrated by accident into a niche otome game, becoming an unloved princess. Her brother sent her to another country as a marriage pawn, but just as she was about to arrive, the knight commander escorting her killed her.

When Delcis got the chance to be reborn, she remembered the knight route she hadn't chosen to pursue in the game and decided to go with the flow and win over the knight commander: show him kindness, pledge her loyalty, flatter him... She tried every method she could think of. Every time she believed she would survive because she was about to win him over, she still met the same end: being brutally killed just before reaching the foreign country.

After failing to win him over, Delcis decided to run away on the way to her arranged marriage.

But can someone tell her why she can't explore the area ahead?! Why does she always get caught and brought back so quickly?!

After dying 24 times, in her 25th loop, Delcis and the knight commander were attacked on the road and fell into a cave beneath a cliff. With a small pile of firewood burning faintly and only a little bland soup left, she habitually picked up the bowl and offered it to the knight commander. When she saw his cold, hesitant gaze, Delcis suddenly remembered the pain and despair she had felt before dying in so many previous lives, as well as the knight commander's hideous, terrifying face when her consciousness had grown hazy.

At last, she couldn't take it anymore. She stood up, spilled the soup, and smashed the bowl against the knight commander, cursing, "Eat it or don't, I don't care! What is wrong with you?!"

She also stamped out the fire and kicked over the cooking pots.

Knight commander: ?

Delcis thought she had angered the knight commander and would meet her death early, but in his eyes she saw a look she'd never seen before. His trembling pupils seemed to reveal surprise, shock, and... a hint of admiration.

Delcis's inner thoughts: ...? Are you some kind of masochist?

After being tortured to death so many times, she gave up on winning him over and completely stopped trying. When the knight commander's attitude toward her became utterly different from before, Delcis felt she might have found a way to stay alive...

Princess: Does anyone get it? Ever since I started acting crazy, I've been feeling much more sane.

Knight: Does anyone get it? Ever since that night, when I waited a second longer before catching the bowl, the whole world has changed.

Only after facing death head-on and surviving did Delcis finally realize that on the back of the game box she had bought in her very first life, there had been a small warning.

"If the player begins actively pursuing an obtainable hidden male character, they will be forced into a bad ending."

P.S. In short, this is the story of a diligent otome-game heroine who goes crazy because she can't get either her life or love.

Theme: Be prudent, protect yourself, and do not fear the dangers of those in power.