The Road to Winning Her Back

--Upcoming titles: Sweetness at My Heart and Two Kids Catching Demons. Please add them to your reading list!-- Linger, daughter of the chief of Qingming Mountain’s stronghold, is a master of every trick in the book, from cheating to swindling. One day, while down the mountain, she scams two taels of silver and spots a handsome, slender scholar named Chu Song. He doesn’t want her money, and he won’t accept her advances. After a moment’s thought, Linger simply has him tied up and taken back to the stronghold. Then she tries to seduce him with tricks from the storybooks. First trick: Save the hero Linger gets a few of her underlings to bully the scholar, figuring she’ll swoop in at the last minute to rescue him and win his heart. But when she arrives, she sees her underlings kneeling before the scholar, weeping and begging to mend their ways. First trick: failed. Thirty-fifth trick: failed. And so Linger fails again and again, only to pick herself back up and try once more. The scholar may be young, but he’s old-fashioned and rigid, making him incredibly hard to win over. Since he’s so handsome, Linger grits her teeth and takes her underlings’ advice: she’ll get him into bed first and figure things out afterward. Deep in the night, the young woman knocks on the scholar’s door in a sheer, flimsy robe. He remains expressionless, dodges the arm reaching toward him, and tells her to behave herself. “Why don’t you teach me how?” A faint fragrance drifts by. The door slams shut. ++++------ Chu Song considers himself a gentleman and dislikes Linger, with her bandit background and brazen ways. Even though the girl clings to him, even though she says she likes him. Like a bandit? Chu Song scoffs at her delusions. Later, he watches the charming young woman stand with her hands on her hips in front of another scholar, saying the same things she once said to him and doing the same things she once did to him. Chu Song looks completely indifferent. But when he learns that Linger went to see the other scholar that night, he knocks over the candlestick. He can no longer suppress his disappointment and anger. For once, he forgets his manners, runs outside barefoot, and shouts: “Linger!” --Upcoming title: Sweetness at My Heart-- The day Tang Siwei first meets Fu Changli, she’s rolling around in the mud with a big white goose, covered from head to toe. A group of young men in fine clothes stand by the pond, all watching her with mocking smiles except Fu Changli. Tang Siwei, a country girl from a backwater village, wipes her face, thinks for a moment, then raises the goose in her hands and blinks her almond-shaped eyes. “Want some? It’s delicious.” He turns away in disgust and calls her a glutton. The boys behind him burst out laughing. She jumps in fright and nearly falls, but he catches her, then frowns and says she’s dirtied his sleeve. “Who are you?” she asks. Fu Changli presses his lips together and says nothing. The boys tease him, saying he’s her fiance. Tang Siwei’s eyes light up. “So it’s you!” Fu Changli turns his head and says it isn’t, but the tips of his ears turn bright red. From then on, Tang Siwei follows him to the bustling capital, falls for him, and becomes his little shadow. Though Fu Changli’s ears are red as blood, he stubbornly says, “Could you stop following me?” Tang Siwei timidly says, “Oh,” and really does stop following him. When he sees her getting close to another young man, Fu Changli grits his teeth and corners her. “Don’t you like me? You’ve changed your mind already?” Tang Siwei answers honestly, “It’s not as if you like me anyway.” Fu Changli snorts and shoves a big handful of her favorite pine nut candies into her hands. Blushing furiously, he mutters, “Who said I like you?” What he doesn’t say is that he picked out the best and sweetest candies himself. Just like her, sweet enough to reach the very depths of his heart. A sweet little romance between a tsundere young lord and an innocent country girl. This blurb was revised and the cover background updated on May 15, 2023. Many thanks to Bishi Gugu for the lovely gift. Mwah! Theme: Be brave enough to say you like someone