Cadging a Meal

- A strong, plainspoken farmer's daughter x a fallen, frail young lord

- True redemption, slow and steady

In the third year of Daqing, an unexpected heavy snowfall collapsed Fu Zhi's home.

To keep her family from starving to death in the snow disaster, Fu Zhi decided to go ask the Duke's household for help.

The villagers all said, "Fu Zhi's family has made connections with the nobility. They're going to live well now."

Fu Zhi really did return from the Duke's household with a large sum of silver. She bought land, cleared it, and built a house.

Unfortunately, their good days did not last. The Duke's household was caught up in a disaster, and the whole family was thrown into prison.

When everyone else kept their distance, only Fu Zhi kicked open the prison door.

She sold her farmland to scrape together enough money, then dragged the young heir of the Duke's house out of prison.

The once-glorious young heir now had bony wrists, and was nothing like the bright and elegant man she had first met.

Cui Wei, who had given up on life, did not want to burden her any further. He could only force himself to refuse her: "I don't need your pity."

Fu Zhi laughed in anger, hefted the half-dead man onto her shoulder, and strode off toward her village.

All that remained was the sword he had used to attempt suicide, snapped in half by her tremendous strength and left behind in the prison.

When Cui Wei first met her, all he remembered were her lively eyes.

Her bold, country-bred nature barged into his stagnant life like a stone into a still pond.

But it was when everyone had abandoned him that he truly felt her vitality.

When his family, his friends, almost everyone hoped he would kill himself to atone, those rough hands held fast to the sharp blade he was using to take his own life.

It was Lin Fuzhi who told him, word by word:

"You're not a young lord, and I don't need to pity you.

From now on, you're a criminal, and I'm a country girl. Neither of us gets to look down on the other. Come home with me. I'll keep you fed."

The following is the synopsis for my upcoming novel, A Marriage of Convenience for Good Fortune. Visit my author page to add it to your collection. 030

- A roguish, sham fortune-telling girl x an injured, straightforward great general

At first, her name wasn't Liu Yaojin.

After disaster struck her family, she fled from the Central Plains to the capital, begging, performing, and using every scam she could think of to survive.

It wasn't until a half-blind fortune-teller took her in as his daughter that she got a proper-sounding name.

Yaojin thought things were finally looking up, but she never expected that her first proper fortune-telling stall would catch the eye of the Zhongyong Marquis's household.

The sharp-tongued steward looked her up and down. "This girl's fate is blessed and noble. She's perfect for bringing good luck to a husband!"

Looking at the birth characters she had scribbled down on a whim, Yaojin couldn't help laughing to herself. The people in this marquis's household were even better liars than she was.

Still, the marquis's household really was a good place to be.

Fine clothes and food, a soft bed and pillows. There was just one small drawback: her nominal husband, Lu Huichuan, was silent all day and frighteningly gloomy.

But Yaojin didn't care. She was best at turning a chicken feather into a command, swaggering around under the pretext of her "lucky marriage fate" and living the good life.

Until her lies were exposed and the First Madam brought servants to throw her out. Then the man who never spoke stepped in front of her and, for once, said something:

"Who dares lay a hand on her?"

Lu Huichuan was once the youngest Cavalry General of Great Zhou. But after a conspiracy left him crippled and waiting to die, he was moved to a remote courtyard, where servants treated him with contempt and his brothers humiliated him.

A man who wanted to die could not care less about worldly matters. He watched coldly and waited for his life to end.

But heaven would not even let him die in peace. A little con artist, meant to bring him good luck, was forced into his shabby courtyard, chattering day and night.

The little fraud stole his jade pendant and drank his tonic...

She even climbed into his room in the middle of the night to warm herself against his numb legs.

Lu Huichuan should have hated her audacity and her lies.

But when she overturned the poisoned medicine and drenched his half-brothers from head to toe, then stood in front of him like a snarling tiger, defending him until her eyes turned red...

The general who had wanted nothing but to die suddenly wanted to live.

Theme: Kindness and hard work can change a fate that seems set in stone.