Her General

※ Save my upcoming novel, Wild Growth, to your favorites from the author's page. Its blurb is below this one. ※

Xia Taoniang was sold to the Three Colors House at the age of eight. By twenty, she had become its madam. She had tasted every pleasure and witnessed every kind of depravity. Her life was filthy and vile, and even she despised herself.

No one knew how wildly jealous she was when she saw Xie Yin, who had been sentenced for deceiving the emperor by serving in the army as a woman and sold into slavery. The celebrated woman, famed for her many military achievements, made Xia feel unworthy. So she tormented and hurt her, wanting to grind her into the dirt, tame her defiant eyes, shatter her pride, and ensure she would never rise again.

But in the end, Xia failed. Years later, the rebel army breached the city gates, and the realm crumbled overnight. Xie Yin, armed and armored, rode out with her spear in hand, leading the charge all the way to the capital. She became a founding general of the new dynasty. Xia, reduced to a beggar on the streets, never imagined that the dazzling Xie Yin would return for her and want to spend the rest of her life by her side.

At last, Xia Taoniang understood that she had Xie Yin in her heart, that she loved her. But she was gravely ill and could not hold on until they reached the capital.

Then, after an unknowable amount of time, she opened her eyes again. Her general, just as she had been back then, came to her, defeated yet stubborn.

In this life, bring your love and start again. Let none of the tragedies happen.

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Though Xie Yin was a woman, she was born strong and with a huge appetite, and was hardly feminine. When she was fifteen, disaster struck her family and everyone died. To avoid starving, she and Ergouzi from the neighboring village joined an army fighting the rebels, figuring they would live one day at a time and that if they were discovered, they would die anyway.

But she never expected the war to last ten years. Over those ten years, she found comrades who would trust her with their lives and earned countless military honors. From an unknown foot soldier, she became the Wolf-Riding General, renowned for her unmatched bravery.

Before she could return in triumph, she was framed by a villain and exposed as a woman. On the very day the emperor rewarded the army, she was stripped of her weapons and sold into slavery. Those villains even sent her to the Three Colors House, whose madam, Xia Taoniang, was said to be so cruel that the women there could not even find a way to die.

Xie Yin thought she had fallen into hell, but instead she found herself in a place of tenderness.

Blurb for upcoming novel Wild Growth below

Years later, when Lu Nanqiao thought back on that time, she still felt deeply moved. Cheng Ya was a quiet, clever, and very unusual woman. Lu spent half her life painting her portrait, yet Cheng always managed to surprise her.

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Everyone knew there was an idiot in Class Four, Grade Eleven. Not that she was actually stupid. It was just a nickname. As for her real name, plenty of people probably couldn't remember it, but Lu Nanqiao did. Her name was Cheng Ya.

Back then, Lu Nanqiao thought of her the same way her classmates did: slovenly, strange, and acting like a lunatic. Until the night before, when her mother told her that there really was a mentally ill person in the Cheng family, but it wasn't Cheng Ya.

Cheng Ya's father, Cheng Mingliang, had a severe mental illness. During an episode, he was like a raging gorilla, trying to smash, shatter, and beat everything in sight, including his daughter. Even when he wasn't having an episode, he was a master of psychological abuse, always ready with a cutting or demeaning remark. Even Cheng Ya's mother, a psychologist, thought Cheng Mingliang was an extremely difficult patient.

That day, when her classmates made fun of Cheng Ya again, Lu Nanqiao didn't laugh at her in her heart, because...

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Without Lu Nanqiao, perhaps Cheng Ya would never have escaped her bleak life. For years, Lu was the only ray of light in her world, shielding her from attacks coming at her from every direction and helping a sensitive, insecure Cheng Ya gradually find her own path.

Theme: Strive to become a better version of yourself