Actually, I Don't Have Long to Live

10.2: I’ve changed the outline a few times, and I don’t think I have any inspiration right now.

I should be able to write it in October.

This will be my next book. I’ll write it as a breather, then start the tragic villain story afterward.

This one will only be around 200,000 words. I’m overworked at the moment, but I’ll update it once I’ve settled into my new job.

I really am writing, but I’m never satisfied with the opening.

Damn it, this book is only supposed to be around 200,000 words, and I’ve already written 100,000 words of discarded drafts.

Xie Chenyue was born doted on, and behaved with arrogance and unbridled conceit. Relying on her power, she ran rampant through Chang’an, committing every sort of misdeed.

At ten, she stole the throne of Crown Prince from her elder brother, forcing him to shave his head and become a monk, spending his days beside the Buddha.

At twelve, displeased by something the Grand Tutor said, she issued an order banishing him from the capital, condemning him to a life of hardship and wandering.

At fifteen, she set her sights on Pei Yingxing, the stunningly handsome heir of the Prince of Hedong. Ignoring the fact that he was already engaged, she threatened his entire family’s lives and forced him into the palace as her male consort.

…

Xie Chenyue knew she had spent her whole life doing as she pleased, earning endless criticism.

But she didn’t care.

Born with a terrible illness, she was fated to die before turning twenty. She only wanted to live as she pleased for whatever time she had.

…

Pei Yingxing had once hated Xie Chenyue with all his heart.

He hated her selfishness and caprice, hated how she used her power to oppress him and break his wings, leaving him with grand ambitions but no choice except to sell himself for favor.

Xie Chenyue told him more than once that she was fickle and easily bored.

When she grew tired of him, she would let him go.

Yet in five years in the palace, Pei Yingxing remained the sole object of her favor, cherished without fail.

Pei Yingxing often felt that time dragged on endlessly in the palace.

Winter gave way to spring, and at last he accepted that he would grow old and die here. Then he received the letter of separation he had long yearned for.

He had looked forward to freedom, but never imagined it would come like this.

The funeral bells tolled through Chang’an. He knelt beside her, holding her body as it slowly went cold, and said over and over, “I won’t leave.”

“I only ask you to open your eyes and talk to me again.”

…

One day, Xie Chenyue woke to find that everyone treated her differently.

Her brother, after their falling-out, came to her birthday banquet and gave her a safety lock he had made himself.

The Grand Tutor she had banished wrote to her every day, reminding her to eat properly.

And as for her husband, Pei Yingxing…

Pei Yingxing wasn’t her husband yet. They hadn’t even met.

On the Lantern Festival, as usual, she slipped out of the palace to see the lanterns.

Lanterns swam like dragons, flowers stretched like an ocean, and she stood amid the bustling crowd, alone in her heart.

Just then, a peerlessly handsome young nobleman came through the crowd carrying a lantern. He looked at her with deep, sorrowful eyes. “Wanwan, I made the lantern you wanted.”

A name rose to her lips.

But she had forgotten it.

…

Pei Yingxing had once kowtowed with every step, praying to the gods and Buddhas, begging the young ruler who had died too soon to live a long life free of illness and sorrow in her next life.

Even if the price was that she would no longer love him.

He would accept it gladly.

…

A nobleman like an aloof flower on a high peak and a delicate, fragile princess/ruler

Both are virgins, 1v1, very short

The heroine is a lovesick fool, a lovesick fool, a lovesick fool! In her previous life, she was starved of affection, and the hero was part of her salvation, so she can’t bear to leave him. She coaxes him while ruthlessly taking what she wants: if she can’t have his heart, she’ll have his body.

Everyone except the heroine is reborn. She will never recover her memories of her past life.

In his previous life, the hero loved her without realizing it. This time, he’s the one who schemes to get close to her.

The heroine is extremely frail. She only lived to twenty in her previous life, and she’s often sick and coughing blood in this one too, though she’ll gradually get better. As the blurb says, the hero prayed for her recovery, at the cost of her not falling for him in this life.

Theme: Cherish the people you have while they’re still here