Dewdrops in the Mortal World

--Completed: The Beauty's Blade--

Upcoming historical romances: Hunting the Moon, The Noble Consort's Palace, Little Sister-in-Law, and Embracing the Emperor's Gate. Please add them to your collection.

Blurb:

[Alternate Sui-Tang setting] [Abduction and Possession + Failed Redemption]

A naive, sweet former royal × a scheming rebel strategist

"Life is like morning dew, and the mortal world like an inn for travelers. I am no passerby. I am the one who returns to you." -- Wei Jin

*

Zheng Ling always thought she would grow old with Cui Chenxiang, the most remarkable man in the capital--

Until the Hu cavalry swept south, plunging the realm into chaos as feudal lords seized the opportunity to rebel.

On their wedding night, before her veil had even been lifted, Cui Chenxiang was sent to defend Henan Circuit by imperial decree.

Two months later, Henan Circuit fell, and Cui Chenxiang's entire army was wiped out--

Defeated by the stratagems of Wei Jin, the foremost strategist under Prince Liang.

Zheng Ling went from newlywed to a young widow.

The capital fell, the emperor died for his country, and the Yu dynasty was overthrown.

The great clans scattered as their power crumbled, and a new dynasty was founded by a prince of a different surname.

The Zheng family, powerful ministers of the former dynasty, were among the first to be purged. The men were exiled, and the women conscripted into the imperial entertainment quarters.

With her family's protection gone, Zheng Ling was abandoned by the Cui family.

She returned to her maternal clan and became a songstress and merchant's daughter, displayed for others' amusement.

At the victory banquet, entertainers performed a dance.

Zheng Ling saw the young chancellor, Wei Jin, seated to the new emperor's lower left--

He was none other than the painter she knew as Fu Danqing.

He raised his eyes and stared at her, his gaze burning.

She was horrified and filled with regret. So she had let a wolf into the house.

Back then, she had recommended Wei Jin, who was using the alias Fu Danqing, to paint murals at the Protector of the Nation Temple in the capital.

She had helped him enter the city, where he gathered information among the nobility and learned the layout of the city defenses.

*

Only Wei Jin knew that during their brief, dew-like days at the Protector of the Nation Temple,

Zheng Ling became the only resting place for his heart in his wandering through the mortal world,

The one who often occupied his thoughts and kept him tossing and turning.

After the song and dance ended, Wei Jin, who had never been greedy for wealth or women, pointed to her and asked the new emperor for a reward:

"I beg Your Majesty to bestow this dancer upon me."

That night, Wei Jin took her back to his private residence and cornered her against a wall.

He kissed beside Zheng Ling's tear-bright ear and said in a low voice, "Ling-niang, actually, I too am a member of the Cui family. Now I am also the most remarkable man in the capital. Will you marry me?"

Trembling against the cold wall, Zheng Ling suddenly remembered what she had once told him:

The emperor had arranged her marriage, and her husband was a Cui clansman, the most remarkable man in the capital.

[Reading Guide]

* Abduction and possession + a failed attempt to win her back.

* Not historically rigorous, with plenty of melodrama.

* The redemption arc fails completely. The heroine ends up thriving on her own.

* Inspired by Sui-Tang institutions and some settings. The characters and story are entirely fictional and correspond to no historical figures.

Blurb dated 2023/10/28

------Upcoming Historical Romances------

1. Hunting the Moon

Princess × Imperial Preceptor

Wild rose × aloof moon

Flirtatious heartbreaker × saintly gentleman

After returning to the palace, Li Haining gets everything she wants. There is almost nothing in the world she cannot obtain.

--Except for the immortal-like man, bright and clear as the moon, in the Sumeru Shrine.

She had set her heart on the moon, but the moon shone on a ditch instead.

No matter. She has always liked forcing things: "If the moon won't shine on me, I'll hunt it down."

Sooner or later, she will pluck that piece of moonlight and make it shine on her alone.

*

Bai Cang is noble, upright, and pure of heart, an Imperial Preceptor who stands apart from the mortal world--

Until he meets Princess Le'an, brought back from the common folk.

He sees Li Haining entangled with her bodyguard, then spending a romantic evening with a hostage prince from an enemy state. At the same time, she flirts with him, sending a saucy poem or song to the Sumeru Shrine every day and boldly declaring her love.

She is utterly reckless, wanton, and without the slightest sense of propriety.

No matter how much he teaches her about honor and shame, it does no good.

Later, Li Haining steals her stepsister's match and takes her place, marrying into the enemy state.

But on the eve of the marriage, Li Haining vanishes without a trace.

--

At the Sumeru Shrine, a secret room is fragrant with incense.

The shrine's head, usually as unruffled as an ancient well, is consumed with jealousy, no longer calm and clear-minded.

"How can you take back what you said? Princess, have you forgotten those loving words?"

Bai Cang's gaze darkens. He strokes her spine and leans close to her temple, repeating the love poems she once wrote, again and again.

--Blurb published 2025/09/03

2. The Noble Consort's Palace

A bride in another's place × her powerful adoptive brother: After she marries in another's place, her powerful adoptive brother regrets it.

[He thought she was a chess piece in his hand,

Never imagining she would turn his carefully laid plans upside down.]

Shi Yuqing was sold into a brothel by her stepmother.

That night, a man took her away from the brothel and settled her in a villa on the outskirts of the capital.

She thought he was a customer who had gone drinking for pleasure, and believed she was being kept as his mistress.

So she boldly asked if he could get her younger sister, who was struggling under their stepmother's control, out of the family home.

The next day, the man sent her a letter written by her younger sister. It said that a kind person had adopted her and taken her away from their stepmother's abuse.

For the next two years, she was made to study music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, as well as how to please men. The days passed, and she was kept there for two years without ever seeing him.

Then one day, the man came and asked her, "Do you know how to please a man?"

Wanting to make a place for herself, win her master's favor, and reunite with her sister, she nodded. "I do."

The man took her chin and pulled her into his arms. "Then please me now."

Her hands, braced against his chest, gave way. Soft and pliant, they slipped inside his clothes, teasing him as much as they could...

That night, she used every trick she had learned from watching the women at the pleasure quarters. Her hairpin fell to the floor, her clothes came loose, and she was exhausted, yet she still couldn't make the man lose control.

He pushed her half-naked body away and straightened his clothes with a cold laugh. "You're still not good enough. Keep learning."

Her face burned with humiliation. She was embarrassed and angry, but didn't dare speak up.

*

Yuwen Xian left the villa and returned to his carriage, drenched in sweat. Only he knew how hard he had just struggled to restrain himself from taking her.

He couldn't touch her. She was merely a chess piece in his hands, one he had spent years cultivating so he could recognize her as his adoptive sister and have her marry the puppet emperor in place of the Yuwen family's legitimate daughter.

But after she truly married into the imperial harem, he watched her flatter that puppet to the utmost, trying to escape his control, and he could no longer hold back.

Yuwen Xian entered her bedchamber at night and pinned her to the bed. "Have you forgotten that I am your master?"

In desperation, Yuqing snatched the gold-inlaid dagger he had given her as a dowry from beneath her pillow and held it to his neck.

He said coldly, "Go ahead and kill me, if you dare. By tomorrow morning, the entire palace will know that the Grand Pillar of State died in the Noble Consort's bed."

--Full blurb published 2024/9/09

3. Little Sister-in-Law

A defrocked Daoist priest × a widowed sister-in-law keeping her chastity: an illicit romance between a brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

4. Embracing the Emperor's Gate

After being betrayed and reborn, I fight my former husband for the throne: A young emperor and empress whose love breaks apart, then clears up their misunderstandings.

[Alternate Han setting + Reborn + Failed Redemption]

Wang Ying was born into privilege, the daughter of the reigning Grand Princess.

Everyone at court and throughout the land said that whoever married her would become crown prince.

The Grand Princess loved her daughter dearly and extended that love to her son-in-law,

Supporting Liu Huan, Prince of Jiangdong, until he ascended the throne.

But she loved the wrong man and ultimately lost everything:

After taking power, Liu Huan grew increasingly distant, his love for her gone.

He even accused the Grand Princess and the Marquis of Wei's faction of treason, stripping them of their titles and sentencing them to death.

With her protectors gone, Wang Ying was deposed as empress.

Her palace, once the center of favor, fell out of grace; confined in the Changmen Palace, she could only gaze out in longing.

Her pleas went unheard, and she could not reach the emperor's gate.

A year after her deposition,

She, with her heart turned to ash, received a cup of poisoned wine and was forced to drink it, dying in agony.

As she lay dying, she faintly heard a commotion outside.

Just as her eyes were closing, she dimly saw someone hurrying toward her.

The newcomer wore black robes and a red skirt, with a nine-dragon pendant at his waist.

It was Liu Huan, who had once loved her in their youth, before the two came to loathe each other.

He gathered her, blood flowing from all seven orifices, into his arms. His rough fingertips trembled as he wiped the blood from her face.

His eyes were bloodshot as he called to her in grief, again and again: "Yingying, wake up. Please don't sleep, don't leave..."

After her death, Wang Ying's ghost lingered in Chang'an.

She saw Liu Huan, once so benevolent and long-suffering, become like a tyrant,

Killing his favored consort, Lady Longyu, and executing her entire clan.

For a time, Chang'an ran red with blood, and the killing lasted seven days.

He even made a show of clearing her mother, the Grand Princess, and her brother, the Marquis of Wei, of their accusations,

And buried her with the rites due an empress in Baling.

She could only laugh. She was already dead,

And Liu Huan was still using her to stage this display of conjugal devotion. It was disgusting.

*

Reborn in a single moment,

She remembers her past life and takes precautions before disaster strikes.

Not only will she sever this ill-fated bond, she will also cut off his path to the throne.

But... fate is hard to defy.

Though she has the will and the power to change things,

Some outcomes keep repeating according to the course of history from her previous life:

After all the twists and turns, she marries him again.

But she also discovers many things hidden beneath the intrigue of her previous life.

And she discovers that Liu Huan, like her, has also been reborn...

[Reading Guide]

* An imperial couple's story of clearing up misunderstandings, rekindling their love, changing their fate, and healing old regrets.

* The heroine is in charge of fighting; the hero is in charge of falling in love and suffering through a failed redemption.

* Multiple characters are reborn.

--Blurb dated 2024.07.03

------Upcoming Xianxia Novel------

A Thousand-Gold Night

A Fu has many secrets in her heart.

One is about Zhao Chengyuan, and it began on a rainy night:

A rainy night in the martial world, treasures beyond price, a young man in fine furs and on a fine horse, spending a fortune without hesitation.

On a rainy night in the martial world, inside the Treasure Hall of the Immortal Capital of Bi, famous throughout the land,

A cold-faced young man in embroidered robes, protected by dragon qi,

Sat high in the ninth-floor Heavenly Suite,

Watching a bowl-sized Red-Gold King Lotus gleam on the auction stage.

The boy took a liking to it and spent a fortune to win the lotus.

The lotus demon A Fu remembers that as their first meeting.

But though Zhao Chengyuan liked the King Lotus, he hated her.

From the moment she used Zhao Jingxun's name and was brought back to the palace of the Yan Kingdom in the Great Sheng Dynasty,

Zhao Chengyuan, the Queen's legitimate son,

Treated her with open hostility.

He thought she was a bastard born to some woman outside the palace,

Who had come back to steal his father's love and his throne.

He once gripped her by the throat and demanded fiercely:

"The Great Sheng Dynasty has never had a commandery princess with real power.

What have you done to deserve rising above me and standing as my equal?

Zhao Jingxun, do you think I am dead?"

*

The Zhao Jingxun he spoke of was another of A Fu's secrets.

A frail young girl who had been unable to speak since childhood, and who took A Fu across the land amid the chaos of war,

Fleeing from place to place.

She was the softest memory hidden in A Fu's heart...

She was only a little demon, with no interest in mortal thrones.

She only wanted to repay her kindness and avenge her wrongs,

Then either cultivate successfully and become an immortal or a deity,

Or fail her tribulation and vanish from the world.

But later--

Zhao Chengyuan, so high above her and unable to stand the sight of her,

Kneeled in the rain and begged her not to leave.

--Full blurb published 2024/03/04

Theme: Take things as they come.