I See Green Mountains in Spring

[The upcoming column novel Springtime Splendor is open for follows. The blurb is below!

Blurb for this novel:

A rebellious female general x a gentle, stoic strategist

The less serious character descriptions: A heroine who loves getting worked up but calms down just as quickly, loves having fun, and can fight x a hero who always wears a polished smile and only blushes in front of the heroine

When Xie Zhaoxi was seventeen, she once ran away from a marriage. The reason was simple: her father, who had just lost his wife, planned to marry someone new and wanted to send her off in marriage too.

Unable to stomach it, she concealed her identity and joined the army. After six hard years, she rose from an ordinary soldier to a general. Then, upon suddenly learning that her father had died, she returned to the capital for the funeral.

A busybody pointed to a man in the mourning hall and told her, "The man you ran away from back then was so humiliated that he fell gravely ill. Now he's a high-ranking official. You're in for it!"

Xie Zhaoxi looked over. The man standing beside her stepmother had delicate features and a refined, fair complexion. He was quietly comforting her tearful stepmother. She scoffed, "Him?"

After several encounters with Pei Xuan, she found that he really didn't give her a hard time. Not only was he very handsome, he was also easier to handle than a lump of dough.

One dark and windy night, Xie Zhaoxi found Pei Xuan unconscious. On a whim, she took him home.

*

As a young man, Pei Xuan had been deeply in love with a girl. She burned as brightly as the sun, while his family was poor, so he never dared approach her.

Later, her father took a liking to him and offered her hand in marriage. He appeared calm as he accepted, but inside, his emotions surged like a mountain collapsing and a tide rising. On the very day of their wedding, however, he suddenly learned that she had run away. Grief-stricken, he fell gravely ill and gave up all hope from then on.

After someone plotted against him, he was drugged with an aphrodisiac and lost consciousness in a back alley. When he awoke the next day, the woman lying beside him was the very girl he had once loved.

Pei Xuan's ears turned red. Unable to look at her, he said haltingly, "I have acted presumptuously toward Miss Xie. If you don't mind, I will come to your home tomorrow to ask for your hand."

Xie Zhaoxi lounged in his arms, twirling a lock of his hair around her finger. At his words, she looked up. "Ask for my hand? For what? I want you to be my secret lover."

At first, Pei Xuan said, "I am willing to repay you with my life."

Later, Pei Xuan said, "If Miss Xie insists on seeking pleasure, I suppose I can make the small sacrifice of being your secret lover."

Later still, when Xie Zhaoxi's childhood friend came calling late at night, Pei Xuan pinned her against the wall by the window and kissed her earlobe again and again, whispering, "Make him leave."

Here is the blurb for the upcoming novel Springtime Splendor:

It wasn't until her younger brother passed the imperial examination and became the top graduate that Zhao Jinchun learned that the brother she had relied on for six years was actually the Chancellor's grandson, Xie Jingling.

Years ago, to right a wrongful conviction, their father had risked his life to bring home the late Censor-in-Chief's only son, raising him as her younger brother.

The Chancellor's family eagerly brought their grandson, who had been living away from home, back into the family. Seeing how alone Zhao Jinchun was, the Chancellor's wife wanted to take care of her and keep her at the mansion as a cook.

But she heard Xie Jingling say coldly, "My elder sister is uncouth. She would only sully the Chancellor's kitchen."

Zhao Jinchun thought she had raised an ungrateful wretch. She calmly accepted the Chancellor's household's reward money and cut ties with him for good.

When the physician Li at the end of the alley heard she was considering marriage, he hurriedly sent a matchmaker to propose. He was an honest man, still unmarried despite being no longer young, and had been waiting for her all these years.

Zhao Jinchun vaguely remembered that when she had been bedridden with a high fever, he had made medicine and brought it to her. Seeing his embarrassed expression and awkwardly clasped hands, she lowered her eyes, smiled faintly, and accepted the matchmaker's proposal.

On their wedding night, she waited a long time in the bridal chamber. Just as the red candles were about to burn out, the heavy scent of blood spread through the air. A long-fingered hand lifted her veil and tilted up her chin.

Zhao Jinchun was forced to look up. Blood still stained her younger brother's exquisite, detached face. It was someone else's blood.

He smiled gently, but his voice was icy. "You drank the medicine I fed you, so why are you still thinking of marrying someone else, Elder Sister?"

The next moment, Xie Jingling bent down and whispered hoarsely, "If you've forgotten how I helped you take the medicine, I don't mind refreshing your memory."

Theme: Become a better version of yourself.