The Echo of Yan

Lingyi was born into the prestigious Cui family. Beautiful and talented, she was a celebrated young noblewoman in Luoyang, admired by countless young men.

But to their dismay, the Cui family's daughter had been promised to someone by the emperor since she was a little girl: Yan Yu, the fifth son of the Prince of Liangzhou.

Who could have expected that one day Liangzhou would raise an army and become a rebel state? With no other choice, the Cui family turned back to Luoyang halfway through the journey to Liangzhou and called off the engagement.

The following year, Liangzhou cavalry stormed the city and took control of Luoyang. The capital's fortunes had changed overnight.

Because of their past grievance, on the night the city fell, the Yan son mocked the Cui family at their own doorstep, saying they had been shortsighted.

As the tides of power shifted and the new emperor's attitude grew hard to read, Lingyi's father wisely submitted his resignation and returned to their ancestral home in Qinghe.

It was spring, and all things were bright and blooming. Just as Lingyi set one foot aboard a boat at the Yishui ferry, a handsome, dashing young man came riding up. Dressed in light, thin clothes and radiating carefree arrogance, he stopped the Cui family's plans to return to Qinghe with just a few words.

Lingyi remembered him. He was the unsavory drunk who had harassed her at Nanhua Temple a few days earlier.

But the whispers around her told her that this was the fifth son of the Yan family, the very man with whom she had once been engaged.

Ever since Lingyi and Yan Yu somehow ended up engaged again, her peaceful days were over.

Unlike her, Yan Yu was talkative and always making a racket, like an energetic puppy that tore up the house every day.

He seemed to have nothing to do all day except cling to her. Lingyi had practically acquired a little shadow.

Whenever she couldn't take his enthusiasm anymore and let out a secret sigh, only for Yan Yu to catch her at it, he would droop his big, round eyes and ask if she was tired of him.

Lingyi was soft-hearted. Every time, she couldn't bring herself to tell him the truth. She would simply pat his hair where there were no ears and reassure him that she wasn't.

Yan Yu never doubted her. Hearing her say that, he would break into a beaming smile.

Lingyi couldn't help thinking that in his past life, Yan Yu must have been a puppy who was very easy to placate.

Reader's Guide:

A slightly introverted, beautiful slacker heroine vs. a super extroverted, fiery puppy of a hero

An unconventional second-chance romance

The heroine has a universally adored quality; both men and women are captivated by her

The hero is uninhibited, arrogant, and not gentle. If that's not your thing, read with care.

Both are each other's first and only

Blurb written on March 4, 2023

Theme: Keep looking ahead