Vast and Boundless

*Print edition now available on all major platforms. vb@Floating Flotsam

In the twenty-eighth year of Chengping, Shen Jishi was defeated in battle and died.

When the news reached Chang'an, everyone marveled at how lucky Qiao Yuanzhi was. She had broken off her engagement before he left for war, so she would not have to become a widow in the Shen household.

But no one knew that a secret fragrance rose every night from the Qiao family's back courtyard, waiting only for the Ghost Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, in the hope that her beloved would remember the way back.

-

Qiao Yuanzhi's greatest regret was having a terrible argument with Shen Jishi and breaking off their engagement before he left for war. After he died, she could not even enter the hall where his coffin lay.

Later, she heard of a fragrance from the South Sea called Blue Maiden. Burn it, and you can see someone you once knew.

Qiao Yuanzhi lit the incense. Amid the billowing, strange fragrance, she seemed to have summoned the wrong ghost...

-

At seventeen, Shen Jishi was made a marquis. He wanted only two things: peace throughout the land, and to return home in glory and marry his beloved.

Sadly, he saw neither peace nor his beloved again in life.

On the Ghost Festival, his lonely soul drifted across the battlefield, only to be forcibly drawn back to his homeland in Chang'an.

Amid the billowing, strange fragrance, he hid his face and smiled faintly. "Miss, you've mistaken me for someone else."

[Childhood Friends]

Reader's Guide:

1. Romance-focused, with plenty of authorial liberties. Happy ending.

2. The heroine has not mistaken him. He really is the hero!

3. There are lots of nonhuman creatures.

4. The title comes from: "Life is fleeting, death is endless."

[Blurb written on 2023-09-08]

Coming soon: I Would Rather Break

In her previous life, Li Shan was the beloved daughter of a princess. She had been doted on since childhood.

At sixteen, she insisted on marrying the crown prince so she could become empress and help him ascend the throne. But after only three years of glory, the emperor stripped her maternal family of their status, deposed her as empress, and imprisoned her deep within the palace.

To survive, she gave herself to the great general Huo Yi.

Huo Yi was the new empress's younger brother. He had gone missing as a boy, then took to the battlefield at eighteen. His military achievements helped his elder sister become empress, and he rose to the ranks of the nobility, earning the emperor's favor. But he was sinister by nature, cold-faced and colder-hearted. After every tryst with her in the Cold Palace, he always left without a backward glance.

One day, as rain and wind raged outside, they lay entwined in the Cold Palace.

Huo Yi's gaze was dark. He pressed his thin lips to her ear and asked what she wanted.

Without a second thought, she pressed his hand against her belly and declared, "I want to become empress dowager!"

But before she could become empress dowager, she died suddenly.

When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to her youth, still Chang'an's most dazzling pearl.

Li Shan brought a lowly groom back from outside the manor. That night, she looked down at the broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, muscular man before her and lifted her chin haughtily.

The legitimate son of the prime minister, younger brother of the empress, and future great general was now nothing more than a humble groom.

She planted a foot on his shoulder. The young woman narrowed her eyes and was about to bring down her whip when a large hand seized her ankle.

His fingerprints showed through her thin garment against her snow-white skin. He looked at her with eyes full of cold disgust.

Li Shan did not care. She gave a mocking laugh and lashed his face with her whip.

She hated him, so she bullied him every day for amusement.

But the hatred seemed to come from nowhere, and Huo Yi could not understand it.

Until one day, as rain poured down and the passion in their bedroom subsided, he dreamed of a pair of lively eyes.

In the dream, rain fell heavily. He stood beneath the eaves in black armor, soaked through, watching her approach him step by step. Her red lips brushed his ear. "General Huo, would you risk losing your head with me?"

In an instant, an inner demon took root.

Notes:

1. In their previous life, the subject stole the emperor's wife. In this life, he dares to do even more.

2. The heroine is not a powerful, all-conquering type, nor is she a meek little flower.

3. The hero is stubborn in both lives, saying one thing and doing another, but he knows exactly how deeply he is falling.

4. The hero will recover his memories later.

Coming soon: The Fallen Green Sparrow

The great general under the command of Wei Yuan had two brilliant talents.

One was the heir of Marquis Changning, born to a noble family, clever and resourceful, and engaged from an early age to the prime minister's daughter.

The other was a bastard with neither father nor mother, wild and unruly. No young lady within ten miles dared go near him.

One day, Shen Que, the prime minister's daughter, came to bring pastries to her fiance.

The heir of Marquis Changning tossed the pastries away in front of her, then shoved a sword into her hands, looking down at her arrogantly.

"See? A woman should have the bearing of a heroine. Once you've mastered the sword, we'll get married."

Shen Que looked at the sword she could barely lift, then turned and left.

The heir of Marquis Changning angrily sought out his good friend, who was sharpening a dagger. "A girl who can't lift or carry a thing doesn't deserve to be my future marchioness!"

His good friend tucked the dagger into his clothes and agreed. "Exactly! If she can't even lift your sword, how could she become your marchioness?"

The heir of Marquis Changning was deeply convinced and felt he had found a kindred spirit!

Who knew that night...

His good friend knocked on the prime minister's residence and presented Shen Que with a dagger, beaming. "If you don't want to be a marchioness, would you like to be a general's wife?"

*

[A story about a good friend scheming every which way to steal a girl from under another man's nose.]

Blurb written on 2023-12-10

Theme: Be kind to others.