My Father, Zhang Juzheng, Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty

Wanbao, who had 99 stillbirths in a row, finally managed to live to the age of three.

What? Her father is Zhang Juzheng? And the whole family is doomed to die badly?

Wanbao planted her hands on her hips: My golden finger is here. All of you can forget about that!

~

Recently, Zhang Juzheng had been looking at the young emperor with a complicated expression. He'd had a dream.

In the dream, the young emperor he'd devoted himself to tutoring had confiscated his estate after his death. His children either died wrongful deaths or were left to wander from place to place. Not one of them met a good end.

Confucius didn't discuss the supernatural, but this dream repeated every night, identical down to the smallest moment.

~

Before long, the entire court began having the same dream. The Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng had prolonged the Ming dynasty's life by fifty years. After his death, the dynasty fell, the land was shattered, and rivers of blood flowed.

One person's nightmare could be warded off as an evil spirit, but when everyone had the same dream every single day...

Grand Secretary, please live to be a hundred!

Two upcoming stories:

1. Be Careful When Taking a Son-in-Law

Jiangjiang has a straightforward, naive father who keeps urging the war-loving tyrant to let the people rest and recover. Just as expected, he earns himself exile.

From then on, the tyrant becomes Jiangjiang's number one enemy. She curses him three times a day.

But exile has its advantages. For instance, the customs in the border town are open-minded, and it's common for women to take a live-in son-in-law.

Jiangjiang carefully picks a handsome, tall, cold-faced young man who, like her, has been exiled by the tyrant.

On their wedding night, perhaps ashamed of becoming a live-in son-in-law, her husband shuts himself away. A common enemy is the fastest way to bring people closer. Jiangjiang has a sudden idea and starts cursing as usual: “Damn emperor, you tyrant! You deserve to die without an heir!”

Her cold-faced husband gives a quiet hum, his gaze on her turning hot. He turns his resentment toward the exile into action and gets right to it.

The tyrant wages war recklessly, and Jiangjiang's husband is also conscripted to put down a rebellion. With tears in her eyes, Jiangjiang warns him, “The tyrant will be overthrown sooner or later. Don't rush to the front lines, my husband. Don't make me the third lady next door.”

The third lady next door had taken three husbands, and all three had died in battle.

Her husband gazes at her for a long while. Before leaving, he spends a passionate night with her, then leaves behind the two forcefully written words “Wait for me” and departs before dawn.

The tyrant campaigns far and wide. Though Jiangjiang and her husband rarely see each other, whenever they meet, they make love from night till day, and their feelings grow ever deeper.

Then one night, Jiangjiang wakes to find her husband gone... A line of civil and military officials kneel in the courtyard. “Your Majesty, it is time to set out.”

Oh dear. The day before, her husband had rushed home, dusty from the road, chopped wood, carried water, washed clothes, and cooked. He'd said the fighting was intense and that he had to leave first thing in the morning. She'd cursed him out: “Damn tyrant! You're not even human. Hurry up and die!”

Her husband, the very man outside being served by two attendants as he put on his armor, the tyrant himself, smiles and praises her. “Well said!”

*

When Xiao Yan first heard that the only hope for the Xiao dynasty lay with a woman of the Jiang family, he casually wiped the blood from his long saber. His narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes were dark and sinister as he curled his lips in a mocking smile. “A woman chosen by fate? She certainly thinks highly of herself.”

Six months later, he finds Jiangjiang in the border town. He watches the young woman smiling brightly in front of her shop for a long while, then says thoughtfully, “For the sake of the Xiao ancestors and all their descendants, I suppose I can put up with a little hardship.”

2. My Wife Is Delicate

Lin Miaomiao grew up among bandits. As the domineering young leader, she lived a wonderfully carefree life.

Then one day, her godmother tells her with a worried expression that she's the heroine of a book. In the story, she's the regent's caged songbird. He chases her as she runs away, tormenting her in body and soul, until she gives birth to the next emperor.

Now the plot has veered badly off course. She has to give birth to this emperor for the world to return to normal.

Lin Miaomiao thinks it over, entirely confident. “Don't worry, Godmother.”

Half a year after going down the mountain, she returns with a big belly.

“Since my son is destined to be an emperor for the ages, he can go conquer his own empire once he grows up.”

*

Xie Yuan takes a fancy to a young woman. She's all alone, with clear, innocent eyes like a fawn, so sweet and lovely that she tugs at the heartstrings.

She's just far too timid and delicate.

“Your courtyard walls are so high. I'm scared...”

“The way you look when you don't smile scares me...”

“I'm scared without a child to protect me...”

Xie Yuan feels for her and reins in his fierce temper, letting her have her way in everything.

He settles her in an estate outside the city, hires a governess to teach her etiquette and household management, and arranges an identity for her. He wants nothing more than to marry her.

When she suddenly disappears, he searches for her like a madman, afraid she's been trapped or mistreated. When he closes his eyes, all he can see is her weeping miserably.

A year later, they meet again on the streets of Yangzhou.

His timid, delicate girl has one foot planted on the face of a rich young master from a powerful family. A bloodstained dagger twirls in her hand as she says arrogantly, “Your granny only wants to know if you're scared.”

Theme: Set out toward your dreams.