The Mandarin Ducks' Pact

[The new story Camellias Bleed for Love began on 06/22]

Alternate title: After My Husband Died, I Married My First Love

The main story is complete, with daily updates for the bonus chapters. 60% of the story is locked from unauthorized readers; the latest chapters become available after 12 hours.

Weibo: @Ruiyu Changli

“Where the clear pond stirs, a guest shall come.”

At fourteen, Commandery Princess Pei Lingwan accompanied the emperor and empress on their southern tour. Passing Hanshan Temple in Gusu, she wrote those eight short characters, and they became the start of a celebrated tale.

A prayer slip for a pair of mandarin ducks and an imperial decree granting her a match made Lingwan the wife of General Wei, the “guest who came.”

But no one knew that, before the thirty-third step to the tree of fate, the jade slip in her hand had been blank.

Halfway there, fate drew her to turn back. Before the silent temple, a young man in gray monk's robes gazed at her with delicate features, like a tender, rain-soaked dream.

Three years later, General Wei died in battle, and Lingwan remarried.

The foolish new emperor betrothed her to a wastrel who spent his days among courtesans. Lingwan's heart had grown cold, when she suddenly remembered that this useless fiancé seemed to have a younger brother.

A Presented Scholar from the final years of Jianye, an Academician Reader in the Hanlin Academy.

On the wedding day, the guests were astonished. Behind her silk fan, Lingwan smiled languidly.

In the bridal chamber, a refined, otherworldly man lifted her round fan. Lingwan was about to put on her gentlest, most graceful air, but when she looked up, she froze.

Those delicate features, veiled in misty rain, were the same as the young man's in Gusu that spring, the one who had captured her heart at first sight, the guest she had invited from a celestial palace to stay in her heart for a while.

“It's you...”

Seeing her husband's astonished expression, she couldn't help feeling aggrieved. “You don't even remember me...”

-

At some point, Lingwan discovered that the palace servant who had humiliated her had had her tongue cut out, the man who had taken liberties with her had lost his fingers, and the treacherous schemer who had plotted against her had lost his life. The dynasty was in turmoil, and the capital was caught in a whirlwind of intrigue.

Only then did she look back in astonishment at the man who had spent over a decade cultivating himself before the Buddha. He was still refined and handsome, with a graceful, otherworldly bearing.

Yet beneath that compassionate facade lay unspeakable obsession and an ambition that defied Heaven's will.

He asked her, “Do you still want me?”

Lingwan said nothing. She simply reached out and pulled him from the darkness into the light.

“The man I fell in love with at Hanshan Temple was never the one wearing monk's robes.”

A twist of fate had put a mandarin-duck slip in the wrong hands. At last, it was returned to the two people and the story that belonged beneath Gusu's misty rain.

-

A sweet and sincere woman with superb acting skills × a compassionate facade concealing a demon's heart

Qingchi Luan × Shanyin Lin

Marriage first, love later (or mutual pining?)

------------ Blurb for the upcoming Camellias Bleed for Love ----------

I love camellias that bleed, fiercely passionate and brutally beautiful.

A brief yet brilliant firework in the world of idol singers, the red camellia so many people remember: Camellia, Xuan Ming. After seven years away from the spotlight, she finally returns as a mentor on a survival show.

As a senior star and a miracle of the survival-show world, all she has to do is show her face to make countless people reminisce about her glorious past.

Countless smash hits, the Best Supporting Actress award for The Sky Falls, and The Hanging, her final work before retirement, which earned her a nomination for Best Actress. Her achievements were truly remarkable.

Her own take on it:

“It's just nostalgia talking. Seven or eight years ago, people wanted to chew my bones to bits. Now they put up a couple of old photos and wail like they're crying at my grave. Was my blood not vivid enough back then?”

She said it jokingly, a cigarette between her fingers. It was February, deep into the night, with heavy dew. She seemed as if she might soon ascend to immortality.

Only Li Qiucheng saw this.

He heard about her past romances, and he heard about her blood and tears.

He thought silently, I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry.

I came too late.

-

Li Qiucheng of Juxing Media, simply put, was a mute dancer and a pretty study companion.

His total screen time across several episodes barely reached three minutes. He was already prepared to earn a little fame and then pack up and go home. But he never expected that, during the first snow of the season on Red Island in January, someone would find him curled up in a corner of the terrace.

Xuan Ming sighed and reached out to him.

“Show them what you're made of. Do it for yourself.”

For the sake of that snow, Li Qiucheng fought his way to first place, went viral, and turned his fate around, winning a sky full of confetti just for him.

He basked in glory, sharing his speech with thousands.

At the judges' table, Xuan Ming applauded him with a faint smile, her hair and makeup immaculate.

They agreed never to speak of it.

Not until Li Qiucheng was worthy of taking her hand beneath the eyes of the world.

“I have my own camellia. I've waited many years for her. I wonder if she'll be willing to bloom for me, if only for a moment today?”

Three years later, at the awards ceremony, these were the final words of Best Supporting Actor Li Qiucheng.

The audience was in uproar. Only Xuan Ming felt helpless.

She had ended up with a lovesick puppy who wagged his tail only for her, and she couldn't shake him off.

She might as well keep him. What else could she do?

1. An elegant, dazzling dance mentor × a devoted, younger sweetheart

2. An age gap of at least eight years

3. Please leave reality behind and turn off your brain while reading. Smooches!

Blurb for the upcoming One Glance Overturns a City

“She hadn't deleted Ren Xuanhe's contact information, or even hidden his posts from her feed. He was the same, behaving with such decorum that it was as if they had never been entangled.

They both knew where the other was rushing about, but Wanghae was too vast for former lovers to ever chance upon each other.”

Her parents divorced, her family fell apart, and she was left dependent on others. After all that, Roujia's luckless first half of life was capped off by failing the college entrance exams. With no other choice, she flew thousands of kilometers and landed in the grand city of Pingjing, where she met Ren Xuanhe, who also came from Wanghae.

He asked her, “Are you a junior from Qingyang?”

Roujia nodded, stunned, and heard him laugh, considerate and warm, easing her awkwardness.

“I've already added you, remember? Xuan Ci Hui He, Ren Xuanhe.”

Amid the din of voices, her heart stirred.

-

Three-tenths of Wanghae's glitter belonged to the Ren family.

There were many scandalous romances beneath its splendor, but the young master of the Ren family was the purest exception.

In over twenty years, his only tender attachment had been lost under crushing pressure, scattered like snow.

The year Ren Xuanhe went his separate way from her, heavy snow blanketed Pingjing. He thought regretfully that Shen Roujia was a brave butterfly, destined to break her wings and fall.

When he silently rejected her, she didn't ask why. She simply left alone.

Ren Xuanhe desperately wanted to tell her that his family had come to Pingjing to see him, and planned to send him abroad and arrange his engagement.

But in the end, he never said a word. He could only watch her retreating figure shrink to a thin line.

When they met again, she had changed her surname and was now called Cui Roujia.

The door to his cousin's office had not quite closed. Through the gap, he could glimpse two people kissing.

The slender figure reclining on the sofa was so familiar it made his eyes ache.

Ren Xuanhe thought, This fate should have belonged to me. Whether I drag it back by force or turn around in disgrace, it is mine.

Even if Shen Roujia had never been among Wanghae's glittering lights.

A second chance at love, with a male lead who completely loses his mind.

Theme: Love is cherishing every inch of him.