Phoenix Perches on the Tan Blossom

***The main story and extras are complete. Next up: a yuri novel, Reunited with My Ex at My Engagement Party to Someone Else, about turning an old flame into a new love. (Hong Kong-style ABO, reconciliation after a breakup, ex-wife-chasing crematorium.)

Upcoming yuri novel: Heartbeat Blind Spot: My wife could tell at first sight that I wanted to sleep with her. Blurbs for both novels are at the very end.

*Blurb:

Special Security Department, Bureau 19.

Wu Rui had just washed the slime off herself and shuffled into the office in her slippers.

"What about you, Captain?" Huo Shu adjusted the armor modules on her combat suit, looking up to admire the beauty fresh from her bath as she continued her earlier question. "What would you do if you ran into an ex-girlfriend on a mission?"

Water dripped from her hair as she answered, her lips cool and indifferent. "We part ways, each finding our own happiness."

Half an hour later, the alarm blared.

At the scene, Huo Shu watched in disbelief as the captain who had just said, "Let's smile and forget our grudges," not only took down a gang of kidnappers with a pencil in seconds,

but also showed no mercy as she hauled the pitifully beautiful hostage out of her cage, bound her wrists, restrained her wings, and took her home.

"Reunited with My Ex at My Engagement Party to Someone Else"

In the eyes of others, Si Jian is vindictive and ruthless.

When she was set up and forced to retake her differentiation test, she retaliated by handing the media a photo of her half-sister, who shared the same father, with her clothes half undone.

When a blind date showed up half an hour late, she pinned her against a floor-to-ceiling window and kissed her until her lips were swollen and red.

When someone interrupted her engagement ceremony, she picked up a champagne flute and drove it straight through their shoulder blade.

The person who retreated, clutching their wound, was the rising new head of the Weng family.

The entire room was stunned. Everyone thought Si Jian had finally picked a fight with someone she couldn't handle.

But three months later, the engagement ceremony was held again, and the fiancée was none other than the woman Si Jian had stabbed, Weng Yuci.

01 That night, Weng Yuci appeared in a different guise. In her daze, Si Jian drank several more glasses and fell into a trap.

Her glass hit the floor. She tried to use the pain to clear her head, but someone caught her hand.

Outside, people mingled amid clinking glasses, their shadows overlapping. Neon light slipped through the cracks in thin strands, like the desire inside her that refused to die out.

Weng Yuci pressed a fingertip to the back of her neck and coaxed her sweetly and softly. "This time, it's your turn to let me help you, isn't it?"

Si Jian's back was pressed against the door. She bit her lower lip and refused to speak.

The scent of vetiver suddenly spread, its heavy woody notes wrapped around burning embers, like a volcano about to erupt.

Si Jian's knees buckled, and her body slid helplessly down.

Weng Yuci caught her.

Amid the overwhelming pheromones, she heard her say:

"You can only marry me."

02 Five years ago, the rain had suddenly begun to pour that night.

The puddles at the mouth of the alley reflected the streetlights, splintering into gold across the ground.

Before Si Jian was pulled beneath an umbrella, she caught a sharp, cold scent. The next moment, a gun pressed against her lower back, and another person's warm lips covered hers.

A hurried, clumsy kiss, with the faint pain of their teeth knocking together.

"Could you do me a favor?" A breath brushed her ear. The voice was low as the night mist. "Help me out."

The pursuers' footsteps thundered past, just three steps away.

She had lived twenty-one years, and a stranger had stolen her first kiss. Her mouth tasted of rainwater mixed with the metallic tang of blood.

She swung her hand back and slapped them.

The person fell to the ground. The umbrella rolled into a puddle.

Only then did Si Jian see that pale face, and the blood soaking half their clothes. Beneath that cold, sharp scent had been such a heavy smell of blood.

"Heartbeat Blind Spot"

The city police received a tip that the suspect in the September 29 major burglary had shown up at South Street Tangdai.

Short on quota and reluctantly drafted into the job, Lin Shuli, captain of the criminal investigation squad, happened to be undercover at the nearest massage parlor street.

As soon as she got the news, she rushed to the scene.

Lin Shuli had to evacuate the civilians in the area without alerting the suspect.

Time was short, the task urgent, the incident unexpected, and there weren't enough people.

Wearing a low-cut leopard-print miniskirt, Lin Shuli had no choice but to step in herself.

She swirled her wineglass, leaned against the bar, and tried to flirt with a civilian through bleary, drunken eyes. "Hey, beautiful, want to go somewhere else for a drink?"

Before she could finish, the civilian kissed her hard. "Your people have already been exposed. There are two more accomplices with guns on the second floor, and at least twenty bullets left..."

Bang

After the scene was under control, Lin Shuli tried to get closer to her, but before she could finish making up an excuse to take her statement, the other woman interrupted her for the second time.

"You want to sleep with me?"

Premise: Nothing is impossible as long as you keep at it.