[Advance Notice: My next book is a historical romance]
○ Faking death | Woman disguised as a man | Childhood friends reunite after a long separation
He Tingliu had always known that some people were born impossible to overlook.
Li Weiying was one of them.
After many years apart, he finally heard news of her, but it was news of her death.
He refused to believe it.
So he traveled a long way, heedless of the fact that Weiying had once been his elder brother's fiancee, and heedless of his own ailing legs and chronic illness.
He sailed thousands of miles south, determined to see her remains with his own eyes before he would give up.
The world was heartless, making him cross the Five Ridges and search everywhere in vain.
The world was kind, too: when the Chinese flowering crabapples bloomed like snow, fate finally turned, and he saw the old friend of his youth again.
*
Born to a prominent family and gifted from childhood, Li Weiying was inevitably proud and competitive, always striving to be the best. But a tree that towers above the forest is bound to be felled by the wind.
During ten years of wandering, she traveled among the prefectures and served as an aide, but an old incident in Chang'an meant she was always viewed with suspicion.
The daily grind of endless, complicated duties finally taught her to read people's expressions and conceal her talents.
So when she completely changed her identity and traveled north to serve as an official disguised as a man, even old friends failed to recognize her.
Only the ailing, crippled painter saw her gazing intently at the scholars heading to the capital for the imperial examinations. He plucked a flower and tucked it into her hair.
"A pearl covered in dust is no fault of yours. A cone hidden in a bag will one day come to light."
In the fine rain and soft breeze, she looked back beneath the crabapple tree, spring snow falling across her clothes.
It was He Tingliu.
He was only a day older than her, never called her sister-in-law, and was always fond of acting like her big brother.
They had been friends since childhood.
*
Officials are jade, while clerks are tile. Officials are branches, while clerks are vines.
That year, Li Weiying went from the pride of heaven to a woman of ruined reputation. Standing atop a lonely mountain, she gazed into the distance at Chang'an.
Tiles and stones, though caked in dust, can be fired into porcelain.
Vines and weeds, though cut off from their supports, can still climb to the sky.
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#After Faking My Death, My Childhood Friends Compete to Marry Me
[Down-on-her-luck yet carefree capital-city beauty heroine x fake upright minister older brother & sickly, deceptively innocent painter younger brother]
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