The Bodhisattva Raised in the Eastern Palace

Latest upcoming novels, Her and the Traitors and Folded into a Darling, can be found in my author’s column.

Novel blurb:

Qing Yin is the famously frail beauty of Shengjing. She is out of breath after three steps and coughing after five, and has been kept secluded so long that no one knows her.

Her fiancé finds her dull and boring, and abandons her on their wedding day.

Qing Yin lifts her veil and, with trembling hands, writes a letter of divorce. Then she bids farewell to her parents and goes to a convent to practice Buddhism as a laywoman.

Before long, she becomes a renowned living bodhisattva throughout Shengjing.

Countless young nobles travel thousands of miles to the convent, just for a glimpse of the bodhisattva’s face.

Later, this living bodhisattva is kept in the Eastern Palace by Crown Prince Zhao Shu.

*

Crown Prince Zhao Shu is peerlessly handsome, a paragon among men.

Rumor has it that he is detached from worldly desires, wanting nothing and seeking nothing, and that he loves the realm but not beautiful women.

But no one has seen how completely Zhao Shu loses his composure in Qing Yin’s presence.

In the Eastern Palace, Qing Yin is a bodhisattva in Buddhist robes by day, lecturing the crown prince on the scriptures. But at night, she is forced to change into a dress as thin as a cicada’s wings and held on Zhao Shu’s lap as he nuzzles her cheek and whispers in her ear, stopping only when her earlobes turn crimson.

He often murmurs in her ear, “People often say the Buddha saves all living beings. But, Bodhisattva, why are you afraid to look at me?”

Later, Qing Yin learns from a palace maid that the empress intends to choose a wife for the crown prince, and that she, an ambiguous presence with no official standing, has inevitably become a thorn in everyone’s side.

That night, Qing Yin prepares Zhao Shu’s favorite wine and puts on his favorite plain clothes. Her limpid, tearful eyes are full of apprehension as she says, “I beg Your Highness to take pity on me and let me leave the palace...”

Zhao Shu abandons his usual gentleness. He pulls over a red silk sash and ties their wrists together, his eyes alight with fervor and tenderness.

“The world outside is in chaos. If you leave the palace, Yin Yin, aren’t you afraid you’ll die?”

*

Qing Yin becomes a sort of second mistress of the Eastern Palace. Everyone assumes she has yielded to the crown prince’s power and become his caged bird against her will.

They don’t know that even her first encounter with Zhao Shu was carefully plotted by her.

# What he thinks is taking her by force is merely her drawing him in, then keeping him at arm’s length

Scheming, alluring beauty & obsessive, unhinged crown prince

One-on-one romance, both virgins, happy ending

The story develops slowly. Read with caution if that’s not for you.

Upcoming novel: Her and the Traitors

Blurb:

In her life, Jiang Fu excels at two things: being the perfect noblewoman and being the perfect wife.

She marries into the Qinghe Cui clan at sixteen. Her husband is a renowned scholar, and they are a model couple, admired by everyone.

Until Xie Wei leads rebel troops into the imperial capital and massacres the noble families.

That night, she stands on the steps and watches the young man she once personally rejected walk toward her over a carpet of corpses.

He smiles. “Madam Cui, you’ve finally fallen into my hands.”

She calmly meets his gaze. “Lord Xie, are you going to kill me or dishonor me?”

He chuckles. “I want you to live and hate me.”

[Little scene]

Later, Xie Wei holds power over the court, but never marries.

Rumor has it that a beauty is imprisoned in his residence, the widow of the former dynasty’s Cui clan.

At a banquet one day, someone dares to ask, “Since Lord Xie loves beautiful women, why not take her as your wife?”

He swirls his wineglass, answering nonchalantly, “If she were willing to bow her head, I would have married her long ago.”

Behind a folding screen, Jiang Fu sneers, “Keep dreaming.”

Jiang Fu: “You want me to hate you? Sorry, you’re not even worth my hatred.”

Xie Wei: “I want you to come to me willingly, but I’m going mad waiting.”

Clear-headed, rational, and skilled at acting noblewoman vs. unhinged, obsessive, ambitious warlord

Warnings:

1. Both leads are virgins. The heroine has been married, but the marriage was never consummated. The hero is unhinged and obsessive, with a forced-possession romance and a long road to win her back.

2. The heroine seems cool and dignified, but is actually strong-willed, and will turn the tables later on.

3. The hero is crazy and shameless, with an overwhelming possessiveness toward the heroine. He loves her to the point of madness.

Theme: Even in adversity, keep reaching for the light