The Fate of the Twin Hairpins

[For the bonus chapters, visit the author's profile for the new story] The neighboring story, A Dream of the Red Chamber: Two Heroines of Gold and Jade, is currently updating. Please add it to your collection! Coming soon: The Little Prince's Search for His Family, about a chubby little kid who transmigrates to before his parents' wedding ◎ Blurb: Qu Qingshu transmigrates into the legitimate second daughter of the Assistant Minister of Personnel, but lives like a country bumpkin. Her mother died young, her father dotes on her not at all, and she doesn't get to visit the capital and see the world until she's seven. In her previous life, Qu Qingshu had neither father nor mother. She spreads her hands: Great, another poor little waif's story. She never expected that this poor little waif would have an all-capable older sister, a beautiful and kindhearted woman who always stands up for her. She can outwit a hypocritical stepmother and keep arrogant servants in line; she can play the zither, paint, and practice calligraphy at home, while making fortunes through strategic planning outside it. Qu Qingshu, who had been ready to tackle the household-strife storyline, immediately loses her life's purpose and settles into the happy life of lazing around and clinging to her sister. Though... her sister seems to have been reborn as the heroine of a comeback story? But what does that matter? Qu Qingshu: Don't ask. Let's just say you don't understand the joy of being a sister-obsessed girl! The death of her one-year-old sister was Qu Qingyi's greatest regret. Reborn into a second life, protecting this little one and helping her grow up safe and sound matters far more than revenge. She doesn't want to be a dependent vine anymore. She wants to become a towering tree that shields her sister from the wind and rain. As for her former husband, who seems to have been reborn too, coming after her to beg for another chance... Qu Qingyi smiles gently and says, "Go away." Coming Soon A Dream of the Red Chamber: Two Heroines of Gold and Jade A story about Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai building their careers together. Blurb: One has the virtue of a wife who stops her husband from wasting his time; the other has a talent for poetry worthy of pity. Yet in the end, the jade belt hangs in the forest, and the golden hairpin lies buried in the snow. Returning to the Land of Illusion, Daiyu finally learns that she is a character in a book. The rise and fall of the Rong and Ning families, the fated bond between wood and stone, the blood and tears soaking the handkerchief: all of it is fiction... Reborn one day, Daiyu watches everything around her with cold eyes, until someone brings her a shattered golden lock and tells her, "Pin'er, the past was a dream. When it's time to let go, let go." On the night she was reborn, Xue Baochai melted her Lengxiang Pills, burned Admonitions for Women, and shattered her golden lock. The blazing firelight reflected off her serene face. "If the whole world is a prison of illusory words written in ink, then I might as well overturn this game and take up the brush myself." Later, Daiyu wields poetry like a sword, and the name of the Lady of Xiaoxiang becomes renowned throughout the land. Baochai takes charge of a trading house, and the Xue family's banners fly over the wharves along the Grand Canal. Much later, Daiyu still remembers the night when two awakened spirits from a book recognized each other. Baojie said to her, "Rather than trust in some destined match of gold and jade, let's forge a sword that can sever fate and rewrite our judgment verses." From then on, a thousand beauties flourished, and ten thousand women rejoiced. At last, the daughters of the Red Chamber found their happy ending. Theme: Break free from the restraints of the Three Obediences and Four Virtues. Even in ancient times, women could become independent.