I Became a Village Official in Ancient Times

[My new novel, Raising the Bright Moon, is now underway. Sweet, well-behaved princess VS cold-faced assassin. The blurb is below. If you like it, please add it to your favorites!]

As a university graduate serving as a village official, Ruan Danning was determined to devote her life to rural revitalization.

One day, while returning to the village with the resident work team, she was caught in a car accident. When she opened her eyes again, she had become a peasant girl whose parents were about to sell her off as a servant to a wealthy family in the village (not really).

Though she'd ended up in another world, Ruan Danning hadn't forgotten the work she'd left unfinished.

She took on the local tyrants, redistributed land, fought poverty, and set up a school. Ruan Danning threw herself into building a socialist society, leading the villagers to prosperity.

But as a minor official in the system, Ruan Danning knew full well how important it was to have connections higher up if she wanted to get things done (and get funding). When she saw the newly appointed prefect, she shamelessly went straight over to him.

*

Shen Zhongrui was the current dynasty's prime minister.

Tired of the scheming and treachery at court, he resigned and asked the emperor to let him go home and retire. He never expected that, right after he returned to his hometown, a young woman from Qinghe Village would come knocking.

She said she was a village official in Qinghe.

Whenever something came up in the village, big or small, she liked to seek him out. Most importantly, she was always asking him for silver.

"Lord Shen, our village wants to dig a well. Could you give us some silver?"

"Lord Shen, our village wants to build a road. I was hoping to ask for a little more silver."

"Lord Shen, our village wants to build a dam. I've come to get some silver."

"..."

One day, the young woman came to see him for the Nth time. The man casually shut the door, leaned in, and pinned her against it.

"Ning'er, what do you need silver for this time?"

The young woman blushed and shyly held out her hand. She looked so well-behaved she could hardly be more adorable.

"The school roof is leaking. It needs to be repaired..."

The man caught her hand and clasped it firmly. His long, defined fingers idly caressed her palm, and his scorching lips brushed her ear as he spoke in a voice full of temptation.

"Become my wife, and you'll have as much silver as you want."

Her ears grew hot. She struggled to pull her hand away, but the man would not let go.

"Do you want to?"

The young woman glanced at him shyly, then finally nodded.

*

#I thought the prefect was my cash machine, but he wants to marry me. What do I do?#

*

A few important notes:

1. Kind, optimistic village official devoted to helping her neighbors prosper VS rich, handsome, talented in both letters and arms, but always dreaming of retirement, prefect.

2. 1v1, both leads are each other's only partners, with an eight-year age gap.

3. Alternate setting with plenty of invented details. Historical purists beware.

*

Raising the Bright Moon

[Sweet, well-behaved princess VS cold-faced assassin]

Huai Man was the emperor's most beloved princess.

They said she wore a pearl gown made with luminous pearls, drank rose dew, and rode in a carriage adorned with seven kinds of treasure. Even her bed was inlaid with jewels.

A precious daughter of the royal family, beyond compare.

What outsiders didn't know was that she wasn't actually the emperor's biological daughter.

On the Lantern Festival,

assassins attacked the palace at night, and the crown prince suddenly burst into her bedchamber. In the chaos, she fled the palace to seek out her brother in Jiangnan.

The journey to Jiangnan was long, and the emperor's pursuers would be on her trail. Traveling alone was far too dangerous, so Huai Man hired Qingyang, the foremost assassin in the jianghu, to protect her along the way.

Yu Junjian was the number-one assassin in the jianghu.

Dressed in black and carrying a Longquan sword, he struck fear into everyone wherever he went.

That day, he was given a job escorting a young woman to Jiangnan.

His business was killing and plundering, so this wasn't a job he would normally take. But she was offering so much silver that in the end, he accepted.

The only problem was, the young woman was far too delicate.

Like a flower in a garden, she couldn't withstand the wind or the sun. He had to take meticulous care of her all along the way.

"Qingyang, you really don't have to wash that."

In the courtyard of a somewhat shabby inn, the young woman sat by a stone table, watching the man crouched by the well, head down as he washed clothes. Holding a pastry in her hand, she said shyly, "I can buy new ones later."

The man washed the clothes without expression and didn't even raise his head. But when his hand found the little garment embroidered with a lotus rising from the water in the wooden basin, his ears quietly turned red.

"You've used up all your pearls. Where would you get the silver to buy clothes?"

One day later, Huai Man accidentally entered the man's room and saw a white garment laid out inside. It was embroidered with luminous pearls, exactly one hundred and eight of them.

That night, the man came back from outside.

Perhaps he had been drinking, because he smelled strongly of alcohol. His usually expressionless face was flushed. When he saw the young woman who had suddenly appeared in his room, his gaze rested on her for just an instant before shifting away.

"The princess is getting married tomorrow. What are you doing here so late at night?"

Huai Man carried the garment over to him and placed it in his palm, holding his hand as she looked steadily into his clear eyes.

"A-Jian, will you help me put it on?"

Many years later, people in the jianghu would often see the usually ruthless Qingyang leading a horse with a bright-eyed young woman riding on its back, traveling from south to north, from high mountains to grasslands.

A few important notes:

1. 1v1, both leads are each other's only partners.

2. Eight-year age gap.

3. Alternate setting, extremely alternate. Everything you read is made up.

Theme: Stand firmly in the present and look toward the future.