Lin Chuan's Little Mountain Collection

[Song Dynasty Woodblock Printing]

"Above the waters of Linchuan stands a small hill pavilion. This time last year, my wife and I met again outside it.

Spring slips by quietly, the breeze is gentle, and the snow and rain are dwindling. Another year has passed.

Now, at the Shiyu Pavilion, soft light falls from the sky. As the saying goes, life is but a dream. How many moments of joy can we hope for?

My answer: I do not wish to compete with Heaven for who will outlast whom. I only ask to go home with her each day, enjoy music and laughter, print books, and while away the rest of our lives."

*

Linchuan Academy has many printing workshops, but the head of its most renowned, the Qingluo Printing Workshop, is a young woman in her early twenties: Yan Tingrou.

People say Yan Tingrou alone is worth the academy's Three Treasures: first, her beautiful, neat, square craftsman's script; second, her superb skill with curved chisels, worthy of Lu Ban himself; and third, her broad learning.

Yan Tingrou has mastered all three, and even combines their strengths.

Zhao Shiyu, the eldest son of Prince Huai, is the most handsome and graceful young nobleman in all of Dongjing. Favored by the Emperor, he serves at the Imperial Academy and is famous throughout the capital, yet has never shown any interest in women.

Then one day, word spread that his engagement had been called off. As everyone in the city eagerly gossiped about the curious news, wondering how the person who had ended the engagement could be so foolish, Zhao Shiyu rode through wind and snow, traveling hundreds of miles to Linchuan.

He was going there to find someone: the person who had seen him at his most wretched when they were children, and who had since taken up residence in his heart.

Back then, his heart belonged to a girl, and he had once promised her, "You saved my life. I shall repay you by marrying you."

But after they had been apart for three years, Yan Tingrou looked in surprise at the person before her. "But I don't want your sincere affection, either."

*

One day, Zhao Shiyu rode a hundred miles after her alone, calling out breathlessly, "Yan Tingrou! If you keep hiding from me, I'll ask His Majesty for an imperial marriage decree and make you mine!"

Yan Tingrou reined in her horse. "Fine, I won't hide. So you won't ask for one, then?"

On the night of the Qixi Festival, the streets were packed with carriages and horses. Everyone who went to the lantern fair saw the young prince with a young woman in his arms. Was this really Zhao Shiyu, the man who never showed interest in women?

[Workaholic, level-headed bookshop owner and young lady + Proper-on-the-surface Imperial Academy vice director and young prince]

[Reader's Guide]

1. The career storyline revolves around Song Dynasty woodblock printing and Song editions of books.

2. This novel is also known as The Book of Seasonal Customs in the Xining Era. Set during the Xining reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, it tells the story of childhood sweethearts who reunite after falling out. It is a seasonal almanac full of the bustle of everyday life. This is not a power fantasy, I repeat, not a power fantasy!

3. At heart, this is a sweet romance, a sweet little story set in the Song Dynasty that tries to recreate what life was like nearly a thousand years ago!

Please add my next historical romance, The Bright Moon Chases Its Beloved Home, to your reading list!

[Sweet-faced but cunning + spirited young lady, the commandery princess + ruthless but compassionate + decisive general]

When Huo Fuyue left the grasslands to marry into another kingdom, she was only sixteen. She wed Pei Yuncheng, a great general of Yan known as "the man who leaves a thousand graves in his sword's wake," under the title of commandery princess.

At first, she played the part of a sweet, shy little flower:

Oh! Brother, your sword is so sharp. Fufu is scared!

Fufu is still young and cannot serve her husband. I think of the general as an older brother. Is that all right?

For two years after she moved into his estate, Pei Yuncheng treated her as little more than an extra place setting at the table, never taking the green girl seriously.

If he had not seen her climb onto the roof to pick fruit one day, land without a sound, and display astonishing lightness skills, he might have been fooled by her.

Later, on their wedding night, Pei Yuncheng lifted her red veil with his sword. Huo Fuyue faced him with a jeweled dagger in hand, wearing an innocent, timid expression. "My grandfather said Yan is a land of propriety, and if you don't like someone, you can divorce them. You'll let me go, right, Brother?"

Pei Yuncheng regarded the young lady with interest and smiled. "Let you go? Impossible. But if you can escape my lands, by all means, give it a try!"

*

She ran, he chased. Every time he caught the spirited young lady, he tied her to the bed.

Huo Fuyue: Husband? Brother Yuncheng? Uncle? Let me go! I won't run away again!

Pei Yuncheng: I'll believe you once we become a real married couple.

One day, Huo Fuyue finally ran back to the grasslands. Pei Yuncheng pursued her with an army of a hundred thousand.

Huo Fuyue cowered, looking terrified. "Husband, the soldiers have swords. I'm so scared..."

Pei Yuncheng propped his chin on his hand. "Keep making things up! Just a moment ago, you were whipping my deputy general off his horse with your riding crop. Weren't you so impressive then?"

Huo Fuyue's eyes filled with tears. "Husband, I'm pregnant."

Pei Yuncheng: ...

*

Over three years, General Pei returned victorious from a hundred battles and conquered sixteen commanderies. Whenever the Emperor asked what reward he wanted, he asked for neither official rank nor beautiful women, only gold.

The ministers all said he knew how to conduct himself, and was neither arrogant nor extravagant.

The Emperor asked, "Why do you only ask for gold?"

Pei Yuncheng replied, "My wife is devoted to running away. I promised to let her go wherever she pleased. To avoid going back on my word, wherever she runs, I buy land there."

Please add my next historical transmigration novel, The Cannon Fodder Female Lead in a Revenge Novel, currently serializing, to your reading list!

Hua Qingmian transmigrates into a revenge novel as the cannon-fodder woman who changes the original male lead's fate.

The moment she comes to her senses, she's in the middle of selling the male lead, Baili Fengji, to a brothel to haul out night soil.

She sucks in a sharp breath. No!

In the original story, she was a general of the Huayue Kingdom who captured the male lead. She humiliated him in every way, forcing him to sell his body and perform, then keeping him as her own forbidden pet and tormenting him for her amusement.

Baili Fengji is the tragic, beautiful, powerful type of hero. He bides his time for three years before finally escaping her clutches.

Upon his triumphant return, he first kills the foolish emperor to avenge his family, then kills Hua Qingmian to avenge his humiliation, and eventually becomes a powerful ruler who unifies the northern lands...

Remembering the original Hua Qingmian's fate, being sliced up like a roast duck, Hua Qingmian turns around and leads Baili Fengji back the way they came.

At the time, Baili Fengji furrows his exquisitely handsome brow, tears streaming down his face. "General, spare my life! I'll work like an ox or horse and serve you well!"

Hua Qingmian: He's pretending! He's lying! He didn't look like that when he was slicing pieces off me!

Her attendant is baffled. "General, where are we going? Weren't we going to teach this man a lesson? Torture him to your heart's content, then kill him?"

Hua Qingmian: "I read the signs, and today is filled with murderous energy. It would be unwise for this general to kill anyone."

One day passes without killing him...

Then two...

After that, Hua Qingmian treats Baili Fengji as an honored guest, cherishing him like the moon in her palm. She only hopes that one day, when he rises again and rules the world, he'll spare her life.

Three years later, Hua Qingmian finally lives to see the book's ending. Just as she's about to bow out after accomplishing her mission, Baili Fengji has her abducted back to his enemy kingdom.

She can't understand it. Is she doomed to be sliced up like a roast duck in this life, too?

But Baili Fengji puts on the same tearful, pear-blossom-in-the-rain expression he wore back then. "Don't go. Didn't you say you'd dote on me? Didn't you say you'd make me happy every night?"

Hua Qingmian is at a loss for words. "Those things were said to buy time. They don't count. Don't believe them."

"I believed you," Baili Fengji says. "What are you going to do about it?"

[Enchanting, possessive female general VS cunning, many-faced male avenger]

[Female lead who puts survival above all else VS male lead who is forthright in both love and hate]

*

[Male Lead's Version]

Baili Fengji is captured and given to General Hua as her male companion.

If he refuses, he'll be sold to a brothel as a slave.

His family is already destroyed. How much worse can things get?

When he is ready to accept death, Hua Qingmian changes her mind just as they reach the brothel.

After that, everything changes...

Baili Fengji falls ill, and she gets him treated;

Baili Fengji kills someone, and she helps bury the body;

Baili Fengji runs away, and she gives him travel money;

Baili Fengji is finally so moved that he loosens his collar. "Perhaps I should just give in to the general?"

Hua Qingmian covers her eyes. "No, no, no! I know a little of the I Ching and cast a fortune for you. Young Master Baili, you're blessed in this life, with eight wives and concubines and a brilliant future. You'd better get going!"

Later, when he becomes a warlord and rules a region, his heart belongs only to the girl who once took an arrow for him and sang him a clear, sweet tune when he was gravely poisoned.

With enemy forces at the gates, he stands on the mountain road at Qingye, speaking to the girl betrayed by her family and friends: "Mianmian, come home with me..."

Theme: Sharing history and promoting culture