Cutting Dust

[Please add to your reading list]

[Beauty in distress x abstinent, obsessive man]

Marriage first, love later x mutual pining comes true

Updates follow the rankings. Thanks for adding it to your reading list.

My other novel, Meeting Spring, is complete. Please check it out.

*

Li Ruolin was beautiful, with a bright, fiery temperament.

Her grandfather held a high-ranking position, and her aunt controlled the imperial harem. She should have carried on the family's glory, entered the Eastern Palace, and lived a life of wealth and honor.

But when the family suddenly fell from power, her fiance became the very culprit responsible for its ruin, and the noble young lady was reduced to a prisoner.

She nearly died several times on the way to exile. A benefactor helped her escape by sheer luck, but then her fiance imprisoned her, turning her into a caged bird.

She seized the lifeline before her, using her beauty to tempt Fang Zhiwei into helping her escape.

But Fang Zhiwei remained unmoved.

He picked up the clothes scattered on the ground and draped them over her shoulders. "It's cold. Be careful not to catch one."

She didn't know whether he was pretending not to understand or truly had no sense of romance. All she knew was that her body was warm again, but her heart had gone cold.

Yet just as she was driven to the brink and resolved to die rather than submit, Fang Zhiwei changed his mind for some reason.

On a damp, bitterly cold winter morning, he stood in the snow, his gaze unwavering.

"I want to marry Miss Li."

*

When Fang Zhiwei first met Li Ruolin, he felt both sorry for her and relieved.

He felt sorry for what had happened to her, yet was relieved that she had fallen into misfortune.

Otherwise, she would have remained secluded in her family's inner chambers, and he would never have met her in this lifetime.

But right away, he felt despicable. He had once been a true gentleman, honorable and pure, yet the moment he saw her, he lost all reason.

Besides, he had spent half his life being cautious and making careful plans. He shouldn't have stopped for the sake of a woman. So he kept rejecting her, and kept missing his chance.

Until, late one night, he saw her tears and finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He rescued her from her predicament, accompanied her on a thousand-mile journey to find her family, and watched her find peace of mind. Yet he still didn't dare make good on his promise.

Fortunately, Li Ruolin didn't hold it against him. After experiencing the ways of the world, she resolved to love him as she had from the beginning.

Steadfast and unwavering.

At last, he remained true to himself and saw each other for who they really were.

She wasn't a pawn for him to manipulate, nor an unwelcome complication in his life. She was the moon he'd drawn from a well.

Reading guide:

1. Happy ending, and both leads are sexually inexperienced, but the heroine has an ex. Read with caution if that bothers you.

2. Entirely fictional setting, no real-life inspiration. Many creative liberties have been taken, so please don't nitpick.

3. The heroine grows over the course of the story. Read with caution if that bothers you.

4. The characters' values don't represent the author's.

*

Please check out my upcoming reborn novel, Leave the Boat.

A new attempt. Please add it to your reading list and show your support.

Blurb:

[Marriage first, love later. A wayward woman turns over a new leaf]

[Bright and charming x cool and detached]

In her previous life, Yao Juan was forced to marry Zhou Qinghe.

She despised his chronic illness and found his bland, boring personality tiresome. All she wanted was to escape her cage.

Unfortunately, she was poor at judging character. Mistaking a heartless man for someone who cared, she ran away with her brother-in-law after he sweet-talked her.

On the day she left, Zhou Qinghe walked her to the door, gazing at her wistfully as if he had a thousand things to say.

In the end, they all became just four words: "Have a safe journey."

Yao Juan suspected Zhou Qinghe already knew she would never return, but she couldn't be bothered to dwell on it.

Under the moonlight, she took her enormous fortune and headed for the river, believing she was on her way to happiness.

But aboard the boat, she was robbed and murdered, discarded like trash. In the end, she met a tragic fate, her body sinking to the bottom of the river.

--

When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the time before she was married.

Outside her room, the people discussing her marriage were making a racket, while her mother sat by the bed in tears. Yao Juan tried everything to get out of it, crying, throwing tantrums, and threatening to hang herself. She swore she would never marry into the Zhou family.

She thought she'd escaped the fate laid out for her and was delighted to marry into another family. But the moment someone lifted her bridal veil, she still saw Zhou Qinghe's composed, cool face.

Yao Juan: "Huh???"

*

Zhou Qinghe had known little happiness in his difficult life.

His father didn't love him, his stepmother wasn't kind, his brothers schemed against him, and he was always sick.

His heart was like dead wood, but Yao Juan's arrival was like the spring rain, bringing the dead tree back to life.

Unfortunately, she hated him and wanted nothing more than to leave.

He quietly granted her wish, deliberately walking into the trap his stepmother had set for him. He thought that although his life would have some regrets, it would be enough, at least Yao Juan would be safe.

Unfortunately, he thought too highly of her. He didn't know that while he died in a sea of flames, Yao Juan was already at the bottom of the river.

--

But later, Yao Juan had eyes only for him.

She spoke softly as she nursed him with medicine, cared about what hurt him and worried about what troubled him. He could no longer hold back, and let ten thousand roses bloom in the land within him that had long been frozen.

For the sake of that glimmer of hope, he finally resolved to fight them for her.

Even at the end of his life, he would never give up again, never regret it again, and never leave even the slightest regret behind.

Reading guide:

1. Open ending, with a happy ending in the bonus chapters. Read with caution if that bothers you. Read with caution if that bothers you. Read with caution if that bothers you.

2. Entirely fictional setting, no real-life inspiration. Please don't nitpick.

3. A wayward woman turns over a new leaf. Read with caution if that bothers you.

4. The characters' values don't represent the author's.

Theme: Cut away the past; all worldly affairs are but a dream.