Chasing the Spring Breeze

[Main Story Complete, Extra Chapters Updating]

Lin family's second son, Lin Feng, was born a nobleman, handsome and graceful. But after being ambushed by treacherous villains, he was gravely wounded and fell into the river. The person who saved his life when he was on the brink of death was a lowly fisherwoman.

Nan Le spent all her family's savings on medicine for him and cared for him day and night, never even changing out of her clothes. She shared her only quilt with him, and whenever there was anything to eat, she made sure the sick man got it first.

Every day, Lin Yan nearly retched at the fishy smell on Nan Le that no amount of washing could remove, yet he could only clutch her close against the bitter wind on the river.

Being forced to share a bed with a lowly fisherwoman was, in Lin Yan's eyes, the most miserable time of his life.

Until he saw the girl Nan Le had brought home.

A beauty beyond compare, breathtaking to behold.

Perhaps meeting such a beauty was the one lucky thing in all his wretched days.

·

Only when Lin Yan's family came looking for him did Nan Le learn that he had been lying to her all along.

He wasn't alone in the world like she was, with no family and no one to rely on but her. And he had never loved her.

Nan Le was sad for a little while, then let it go. She carefully did the math and asked Lin Yan for six hundred and thirty-two coins as her final payment.

Not a coin more, not a coin less. That was what she had spent on his medicine. Losing face didn't matter, but she couldn't lose her money.

She had never planned to ask for more. She only wanted to get back the savings she had scraped together, one coin at a time.

Nan Le never expected Lin Yan to have her forcibly taken back to the capital, her voice poisoned into silence, and her registered as a slave.

Still less did she expect that Lin Yan hated her so much that her suffering brought him pleasure.

A fire broke out in the attic, and Nan Le died a horrible death in the flames.

Just as Lin Yan had wished, he had finally avenged himself. He had forced the only person in the world who had seen him at his lowest to die, the wicked woman who had killed the woman he loved.

From then on, no one would ever know that Marquis Ning'an had once shared a bed with a lowly fisherwoman in the river breeze, or that he had playacted and uttered all those wanton words he never should have said.

But Lin Yan felt no pleasure or peace at all. He lay awake night after night, never again knowing a moment's restful sleep.

·

The new emperor ascended the throne and married a woman of unknown origins, making her empress. He doted on her and deferred to her in all things.

At the empress's enthronement ceremony, Lin Yan saw two people who had risen from the dead.

His moonlight and his cinnabar mole stood side by side, hand in hand.

Sickly, cross-dressing prince Shen Tingyu x resilient, kindhearted fisherwoman Nan Le

Reader's Note:

1. The characters are flawed. The author is sensitive, so please don't conflate the characters' actions with the author.

2. Lin Yan is not a good person, and Shen Tingyu isn't a good person in the conventional sense either. Nan Le is entirely good.

3. Lin Yan's reformation comes too late. Shen Tingyu, the second male lead, wins the heroine.

4. Shen Tingyu is a man disguised as a woman. Important: a man disguised as a woman.

Please check out my completed novel next door, My Husband Betrayed Me. If you're interested, have a look at my author page.

Here's the preview for my next novel, a story of possessive love, Swallowing Tears and Pretending to Be Happy. Please add it to your favorites, pretty please.

Blurb 3

Nan Yun was just fifteen when she came of age, and the emperor personally chose her to be crown princess.

Everyone said this marriage was a perfect match, a union made in heaven.

Nan Yun had met the crown prince a few times. He was a gentle, refined gentleman, and she was quite taken with him.

But then a palace coup erupted. It was the sixth prince, He Zhao, famed for his virtue, who murdered his father and brother, turning the capital into a river of blood.

Seizing the throne wasn't enough. He also stole her, the crown princess-to-be, and brought her into the palace.

One spring night, the east wind swept away her dreams of Mount Wu. Beneath the red bed curtains, the young woman was fair as snow, her delicate beauty fragile and forlorn. With tears glistening in her eyes, there was no way she could not inspire pity.

He Zhao lifted her chin with a smile. "What, are you unhappy to be with me?"

Tears glimmered in the beauty's eyes, but she could only smile and answer, "Your concubine is overjoyed."

·

He Zhao thought Nan Yun had accepted her fate. He never imagined she would have the courage to leap from the city wall as he returned victorious.

Nan Yun watched He Zhao below, his eyes nearly bursting from their sockets, his eyes bloodshot as he roared, "You dare! Nan Yun, how dare you die?!"

She laughed with satisfaction.

The empress, who feared water and pain, died in the raging Yang River in June, leaving no body behind.

From then on, there was no more Empress Nan Yun. There was only a young widow named Hu, whose husband had died years ago.

This time, she had beaten him.

·

Everyone knew the empress died in the same year the emperor won a great victory over the Suodan. From that year on, the emperor went mad.

He had ten high-ranking officials who petitioned him to hold a funeral for the empress beheaded one after another. He searched the whole realm for her, insisting that she was still alive.

He searched for three years.

When they met again, He Zhao clamped a hand around her throat and hissed in her ear, "What did I tell you? Nan Yun, you'll never escape me!"

Theme: Never judge someone by their appearance.