When Spring Burns Out

"Double Stand-ins / Angsty Romance"

Blurb:

Pei Xia realized he loved Zhou Shiyu only after news of her death reached Chang'an.

After a crushing defeat, Lingzhou fell. The female heir, once renowned throughout the north and south and hailed alongside her fiance as one of the "Twin Gems of the Border City," vanished into the yellow sands with the hundred thousand soldiers who had fallen in battle.

Five years later, Pei Xia led an army to reclaim the lost territory. But on his victorious return, he came face-to-face with a pair of familiar eyes.

They looked like hers, yet not like hers.

As if possessed, Pei Xia took the orphan girl in.

He reached out and gently stroked her cheek. "From now on, I'll call you A Yu."

He coaxed A Yu into calling him her husband and dressed her in the clothes of the woman he'd lost. When their passion reached its height, he would grip her chin and turn away her overly ardent gaze.

Though she knew she was only a stand-in, A Yu continued to gaze at his face and say softly, "Husband."

Her eyes, clear as autumn waters, seemed to brim with endless love.

Pei Xia thought coldly that she was so pitiful.

Until one day, she was injured saving him. As she drifted in and out of consciousness with a fever that wouldn't break, she murmured a name: Jinghe.

It was as though all the blood in his body had frozen.

Pei Xia hadn't forgotten. That was the name of Zhou Shiyu's fiance.

A dark, brooding male lead vs. a once sunny and cheerful female lead who has gone just as crazy

*The blurb and the male lead's name have been revised a few times during the pre-release period, but the premise is unchanged.

Tips:

A tragic, all-consuming love story. The premise and potential triggers are all in the blurb: the male lead mistakes the heroine herself for a stand-in, while the heroine truly loves her fiance.

You could say it's a double-stand-in story. The main text is from the heroine's perspective, and both the male lead and the second male lead are virgins.

The blurb only shows part of the male lead's emotional storyline, not the whole picture. The main story has a substantial plot, and the heroine is its undisputed protagonist.

Theme: Love requires honesty.