A Guide to Evolving Mental Illness

Here's the blurb for my upcoming novel, I Lost My Memory After Marrying My Archrival.

[Please read the notes at the end]

After barely making it out of an escape game alive, Yan Xianchuan just wants to live an ordinary life. She never expected to be assigned a marriage partner just two days after arriving, much less that this partner would have a secret side job in addition to her career as an award-winning actress.

In the middle of the night, her delicate wife actually climbs out the window.

Yan Xianchuan: If I remember right, this is the 99th floor. Should I pretend I didn't see that, or remind her to put on another layer?

Another night, her wife doesn't climb out the window. Instead, she picks the lock on Yan Xianchuan's bedroom door. Yan Xianchuan wakes from a dream and, out of politeness, greets the unexpected visitor beside her bed. "Good evening?"

Then she gets a bullet for her trouble.

Yan Xianchuan: Hey, hey, hey?

Lu Mingqiu often calls herself a foolish idealist. She walks a path the world doesn't approve of, betraying her own class as she tries to escape the restrictions of her circumstances and free herself from the chains of ideology.

And she doesn't just want to do it herself. She wants to help all the ordinary people exploited and oppressed by the chaebol fight back. Even her allies, who share her ideals, look at her strangely, simply because she's an Omega, someone who is supposed to serve her family, get married, and have children.

The only exception is the marriage partner she chose: someone who was supposed to be a good-for-nothing A.

She treats Lu Mingqiu as an equal, listens to her troubles, supports her actions, and never tells her what to do. Yan Xianchuan admires her soul, not her face.

Yan Xianchuan is a textbook high-functioning sociopath with an emotional deficit, yet she's the only normal person in Lu Mingqiu's world.

With smoke filling the air, the two are trapped in a cramped, damp underground space. Explosions rumble overhead, their pursuers' footsteps draw nearer, and both women are gravely wounded and near death.

Yan Xianchuan produces two chocolate gummies as if by magic. "Want some candy?"

"Don't worry," she says. "We'll both be fine."

Lu Mingqiu gazes into her ink-black eyes and whispers, "Have I never told you I love you?"

Reader's guide:

1. Emotionally detached A x gentle and approachable on the outside, ruthless on the inside O. How many normal people make it out of an escape game? :)

2. My take on ABO, with special abilities, no accessories, two strong leads, marriage first and love later.

3. This is not an entertainment industry novel, though it does touch on that world. It's a serious story about building a career, just not a career in entertainment.

4. Cyberpunk setting. The main conflict is social class, resistance, and struggle. This is a story about new beginnings.

Upcoming novel blurb:

Xu Mengzhou realizes she's lost her memory. She's been in a car accident, and her lower leg is still in a cast.

Good news: The beautiful woman visiting her in the hospital is her wife.

Bad news: Her friend says the woman is her archrival.

Xu Mengzhou: "Is something wrong here?"

Her friend makes a face and says, "You used to start fights whenever you saw each other, then out of nowhere you dragged her off to get married in a rush. You even made the staff work overtime by showing up right before closing."

Xu Mengzhou is full of questions. "...Am I okay?"

Her friend grimly spits out, "I think you've been after her for a long time."

Dazed and confused, Xu Mengzhou follows her beautiful wife home, and somehow they end up in bed together again. The next morning, their legs are tangled under the covers, and warm breath falls against the hollow of her throat.

The previous night's memories return. Her wife's ragged breathing and tear-streaked, flushed face, as she begged in broken gasps, are seared into her mind.

Oh no... She really did make the first move.

Her friend was telling the truth. She was secretly in love with her archrival!

Xu Mengzhou does everything she can to keep the marriage together, clinging to her like a piece of gum. Then she accidentally falls down the stairs and opens her eyes in the hospital again, this time with all her memories back.

Her wife is none other than Ruan Li, the person she hates most in the world, the culprit who kept her in second place throughout her school years. They married under a contract. There's no love between them!!!

Xu Mengzhou: "Divorce! I want a divorce!"

But when she looks up, she sees the distinct bite marks and provocative flush on her archrival's fair collarbone. The words stick in her throat, and she can't force them out.

Somehow they end up in bed again. Xu Mengzhou bites her cool lips and clings to the last scraps of self-control. "I don't like you at all."

Ruan Li grips her hair, her eyes hazy with tears as she lets out broken, breathless moans. "Your technique... is awful too."

A deep kiss, almost a bite, silences the words as soon as they leave her mouth. Tears from their trembling bodies soak the pillow, and the arms wrapped around her waist tighten, then fall limp.

Xu Mengzhou pretends she hasn't taken revenge. She leisurely wipes the dampness from the tip of her nose and gives a soft laugh. "Thanks for the hospitality."

Ruan Li has a secret written in her diary.

The first page says: I want to kiss her.

On the day they get their marriage certificate, she finally fills in the second page.

Theme: Do good deeds, starting with you and me.