Seizing the Luan

Yun Sang, a princess of Northern Zhou, was forced in her previous life to marry into the Turks. She was wed to an aged khagan on the brink of death, and her beauty drew the covetous attention of wolves. In the end, she died in humiliation in a khagan's tent in the northern desert, far from her homeland. Given another life, she swore to escape the fate laid out for her. Yet barely had she begun her escape when she encountered the one person she least wanted to see again. She and that man had once been the closest of siblings in the world. As children, they endured the fall of Chang'an together, depended on each other through life and death, and risked their lives to save one another. When she was forced to marry far away in her previous life, she had thought he would remember their bond and show her mercy. But his heart was so cruel. In her last life, he ignored her humble pleas and personally sent her off to marry into the Turks. After they met again in this life, he used her for his own ends and killed both of her first two fiances. Again and again, he stood in the way of her escape and locked her in a cage. * Ning Ce was once the most dazzling grandson of the Northern Zhou emperor. After suffering a setback in his youth, he would have to tread a treacherous, painstaking path to the throne, wielding ruthless violence without hesitation. In this game of strategy for control of the realm, the only variable that left him uncertain was the girl who had clasped his hand beneath the ruins of Chang'an. She and he had once been the closest people in the lonely palace. He had thought he would be the one she could never abandon, the one she would always rely on and admire. But after she got engaged time and time again, each time to one of his sworn enemies, he finally realized that she had been lying from the very beginning. All his trust and love, even their child, had been nothing but tools she used to manipulate him. Her heart was so cruel. Again and again, she hurt him beyond bearing. So later... Once again, he held the life and death of her third fiance in his hands. Knowing she was kneeling before him, he never raised his eyes. The vermilion brush in his hand paused and moved, making its way across the list of condemned prisoners. After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice cool and clear: "This time, you aren't begging me?" =Reader's Note= * The romance centers on love and conflict. The heroine is headstrong and clever; the hero is calculating and controlling. Happy ending. * The heroine was married in her previous life, but never consummated the marriage with the old khagan. She is a virgin in this life, and the hero is a virgin in both lives. * The blurb presents the hero and heroine's respective subjective perspectives, which may differ. * The setting is fictional, inspired by the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Warfare is frequent, and society is relatively tolerant. * The "Luan" in the title was an ancient variant of the character for imperial carriage bells, and symbolizes imperial power. * No comments from readers of pirated copies. -------------Forthcoming Novel Blurb-------------------- Forthcoming novel: Fireflies Fly, Magpies Cross, also known as After the Fall of Her Country, She Marries Her Enemy. Please add it to your collection! Blurb: Lu Chengjin was born into a powerful aristocratic clan. He wielded authority over the imperial family, deposed an incapacitated emperor, and assisted the new sovereign. On the day of the palace coup, his sworn enemy ambushed him, leaving him blind. Months later, after finally making his way home, he learned that his relatives had believed him dead. Following the folk custom of marrying a ghost husband, they had brought a bride into the family for him, hoping to have her bear an adopted son and continue the family line. Lu Chengjin could not accept such absurdity. He offered the girl money and gifts to send her away. But even after being stripped of her title as his wife, the girl still refused to leave. With tears in her eyes, she said that she had admired his talent since childhood and had memorized every poem he had written. Now that her reputation was ruined, she had nowhere to go. She only asked to remain in the Lu residence, care for him, and bear an heir for the Lu family to repay their kindness. Lu Chengjin was fed up with her persistence. He already had a distinguished young lady he wished to marry. Even if he took a concubine, that woman would never tolerate a social climber who had willingly married a ghost husband for fame and fortune. Once there was hope that his eyes would recover, he immediately petitioned for permission to leave the capital and hunt down the deposed crown prince who had blinded him. He would also find the girl another place to go. As if sensing how determined he was, the girl gradually stopped clinging to him and acting so familiar. On the day he finally regained his sight, she left without a word and vanished. * To preserve the dynasty, Yuan Qingyi was made the Crown Prince of Great Qian at birth and lived as a boy for sixteen years. When imperial power suddenly fell, she had nowhere left to turn. Changing back into women's clothes, she clutched a memorial tablet and married the rebel enemy she herself had ordered to be ambushed and killed, hoping to wait for a chance to escape. Who could have known that before she could make her escape, her supposedly dead husband would return alive? They had been classmates for ten years and knew each other better than anyone. Yuan Qingyi was cautious. Relying on more than a decade of insight into her enemy's temperament, she survived one crisis after another and finally made it to Yongzhou, where she reunited with her cousin. Later, when Lu Chengjin captured her with his troops and locked her in a death-row prison, she realized that perhaps she had not understood him as well as she thought. So rigid and aloof, he could still turn red-eyed like a character from a romance story, pin her into a corner, and kiss her again and again with near-mad abandon. =Reader's Note= 1. Both are virgins. The hero pursues his wife after losing her; harem rivalry. 2. Fictional setting. The heroine was inspired by the Yuan princess of Northern Wei. 3. The title comes from the line "Fireflies fly, magpies cross, neither can be relied upon" in Guo Wu's poem "The Begging Festival." 4. The first version of the blurb was posted on 2024-12-20 and archived on Weibo. Theme: Though a thousand stand in my way, I will go.