Spring Ripples on the Steps

◎Signed for print publication. For updates, see @Jinjiang Jingmu Nuanyang

◎New novel, The Widow at the Gate, but Everyone’s Favorite, is complete

Su Miaoyi is as lovely as a lotus rising from clear water, a beauty who inspires affection in everyone. She is the ideal woman every scholar in the county longs to win. Yet she has eyes only for the handsome young man she rescued, and insists she will marry no one but him.

On the eve of their wedding, he leaves without a word, turning her into a laughingstock across the county.

Several months later, they meet again in Lin'an.

The young man sits in a lacquered gold palanquin inlaid with jade, aloof and distinguished, surrounded by attendants. He clearly sees Su Miaoyi, yet his gaze passes over her without a trace of recognition.

Only then does Su Miaoyi learn that her fiancé is Rong Jie, the eldest young master of the Rong family. His ancestors have served as chief ministers for three generations, and his mother is a county princess. How could someone like him ever be within reach of a merchant's daughter like her?

But Su Miaoyi still marches alone into the Rong residence.

It happens to be the county princess's birthday banquet, with relatives and friends all on hand to witness the scene. Su Miaoyi produces the keepsake that once bound them together and weeps so prettily that tears stream down her face.

Everyone assumes she is getting above herself, trying to use a favor she once did Rong Jie to force him to marry her.

But she chokes out, “Back then, Young Master said he had no way to repay me for saving his life, so he proposed we become sworn siblings, treat each other as brother and sister, and look after one another from then on... Does that still stand?”

The whole hall falls silent in astonishment.

A ripple flashes through Rong Jie's eyes. He nearly crushes the wine cup in his hand.

Su Miaoyi has the face of a celestial maiden, but the heart of a miser.

After her fiancé abandons her, she takes her banknotes and her title as the Rong family's adopted daughter and cheerfully opens a bookstore. It doesn't sell the Four Books and Five Classics, but instead peddles all manner of court gossip and sensational tales from the streets.

Three years later, Su Miaoyi's bookstores can be found throughout the realm, and the gates of her home in Bianjing are besieged by distinguished families hoping to marry her.

Some are after her immense fortune.

Others have their eyes on her sworn elder brother, Rong Jie, who became chief minister at a remarkably young age.

At the Chancellor's residence, Rong Jie burns every calling card from the men seeking her hand.

Su Miaoyi watches him lose control without trying to stop him. “Does Elder Brother have someone more suitable in mind?”

In the firelight, Rong Jie's face is shrouded in shadow.

“What about me?”

“Marriage would be inappropriate.”

She looks him over with a radiant smile. “But as a lover with no name or status, you might just do.”

[Reader's Guide]

1. One true pairing, happy ending. Su Miaoyi x Rong Jie; there is no changing the male lead. The male lead is a jerk early on, then turns into a lovesick puppy. (A flirtatious, money-loving white lotus vs. a cold, aloof misanthrope.)

2. Set in a fictional dynasty. The career storyline makes up 50% of the novel, though it isn't shown in the blurb. The heroine does not transmigrate; she is a native of this world!!!!

3. This isn't a strong-female-lead story, but every plotline and character revolves around Su Miaoyi. She has no golden finger, and she makes mistakes and grows.

4. There are plenty of twists, so give it at least one more chapter before deciding.

5. The synopsis is a bit of a joke, so don't take it too seriously.

Reason for entering the competition: As a woman, the heroine runs a bookstore, building her business from nothing in a remote backwater. She edits and prints unusual books and launches a newspaper, eventually opening bookstores across the realm and becoming the most powerful bookseller and biggest news publisher of her age.

Next novel: Miss Chen Is Up to Her Old Scams Again

Also known as: Mistaking a Powerful Official for My Gullible Dream Man

With a beauty mark between her brows and a face like Guanyin, Chen Xuanwei makes a living by swindling people across the land.

But she takes the act too far. Her “immortal reputation” spreads far and wide, and she is hauled to the capital to pit her skills against the imperial preceptor.

At the grand hall, the preceptor, who has been in seclusion for years, arrives late. His bearing is flawless, his beauty peerless.

Chen Xuanwei glances up, and her trembling legs instantly stop shaking.

Isn't this one of the fools she once swindled out of both money and affection?

That night, Chen Xuanwei slips into the preceptor's bedchamber as if she knows the way, takes out the jade pendant they once exchanged as a token of love, and sweet-talks him.

“Ying Lang, I have never forgotten you all these years.”

“I'm in danger now. You'll help me, won't you?”

-

Ying Zhuoxue is a man of immense power and capricious temperament.

Though he has long been known as the Jade-Faced King of Hell, this is the first time anyone has treated him as a man beneath her skirts.

This audacious con woman has mistaken him for his worthless twin brother, and now she is shamelessly pretending to love him to enlist his help.

Ying Zhuoxue gazes at her lovely, tender face and suddenly laughs softly.

“Fine.”

His cold horsetail whisk slowly lifts her sash from below. “As long as the immortal maiden offers enough to satisfy me.”

At first, he only goes along with her, curious to see what she is really like.

But once he begins, Ying Zhuoxue falls into a snare he can no longer escape.

-

Chen Xuanwei gradually realizes that her once-obedient Ying Lang is no longer as easy to handle as before.

When they con people at court, he keeps giving them away.

And in bed, he pretends not to hear her!

Chen Xuanwei has wanted to cut ties with him countless times, but she keeps putting up with him because he is still useful.

Until, several months later, Ying Zhuoxue's twin brother returns to the capital.

Chen Xuanwei stares at the two identical faces before her, still trying to make sense of it, when a hand firmly grips her trembling waist.

A gentle, dangerous laugh comes from the man at her side.

“Immortal maiden, take a good look. Which one is your Ying Lang?”

Theme: Women should stand on their own feet.