Spring Streams Beneath the Hanging Apricot Blossoms

This book will enter paid serialization on September 22, the autumn equinox. I thought about it for a long time before making this decision. Luckily, we’ve made it to the final stretch of the paid release. Thank you all for staying with me. There’ll be a subscriber giveaway and bonus chapters after it goes paid, if I can manage to get them out. I’m currently working on several extra chapters to fill in the ending, and I hope to share them with you soon. Once again, thank you to all my readers for your support!

The book was originally titled My Lord Husband Is Spoiled and Arrogant.

Blurb 1:

On their wedding night, the candlelight glowed warmly.

His face was flushed, and his gaze toward her was tender and captivating.

Xuan Ning bent down to kiss him, but he stopped her.

“There’s something I’ve never told you. I’m not a virgin anymore...”

Xuan Ning straightened in disbelief and looked down at him.

“What is this? I’m a pure-love, mutually-virginity-preserved fan.”

Heaven was truly cruel. Even after she died, she still had to work unpaid for 500 years.

She consoled herself that at least she’d get a sign-on bonus, only to find that the System didn’t even match her with a man she liked.

“Your Highness, something terrible has happened! The groom threw himself into the lake!”

Damn, he’s lost it.

She’d worked so hard to win this man over. Even if he was going to die, he couldn’t do it right outside her home. Gritting her teeth, Xuan Ning jumped into the winter lake and pulled him out, red wedding robes and all.

She saved him and gave him CPR, but when he woke up, she was unconscious.

When she came to, he told her he had already signed the divorce papers and she was free.

As if he could get away that easily.

Xuan Ning cornered him in a corner of the painting academy. Without even saying who the person was, she took him right there.

Tang Songyu stared at her without blinking and drawled, “That person looks exactly like you.”

Xuan Ning froze. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said.”

Afterward, she rested her chin in her hands and thought it over.

“I vaguely remember. How about we do it again?”

He looked thoroughly satisfied, wrapped an arm around her waist, and brought it up again. “Your Highness... weren’t you going to divorce me?”

The little thing had quite a grudge.

Blurb 2:

Xuan Ning was dead, but not entirely.

A company that ran the System took an interest in her soul and wanted her to work unpaid for 500 years.

As her sign-on bonus, she got to choose a target to pursue: Tang Songyu.

He was a lofty flower who had fallen to earth, his brows always touched with a faint, compassionate air.

One glance was all it took for Xuan Ning to desire him.

She wanted to shatter his aloofness, then fill his heart with worldly passions beneath the soft glow of the moon.

After they married, she did just that.

She gave him joy and love and hate. When she swept out the door, she left him with a heart full of sorrow.

Again and again, she comforted him, only to put him in a humiliating position all over again.

Tang Songyu was already battered and bruised by her treatment, yet he still caught her hand and stubbornly asked, “Why do you love me? Why me?”

Xuan Ning said nothing, but kept him in her arms all night.

When his thoughts began to drift, she gently tapped his palm and leaned down to whisper.

[Your very existence is what I love.]

Only much later did Tang Songyu understand what she meant.

But this time, he had to wait a long time before she came back to him.

[Capable of anything but a bully at home princess × lofty flower and increasingly artful portrait painter]

Both are sensitive and suspicious in their own ways. The female lead is stubborn, and the male lead doesn’t express himself. Later on, the male lead becomes a master of emotional manipulation, jealous and clingy.

Also: clueless × grumpy.

① A matriarchal kingdom with a cultivation background. The worldbuilding is entirely my own, so please don’t nitpick it for historical accuracy.

② One-on-one romance, both leads virgins, with a little gender-bending (not much). The female lead is kissed by another man (not much).

③ Men can have children in this world. The female lead will not give birth! Will not! Will not!

④ The later Cangling plot takes a more fantastical turn, and the writing gets melodramatic. If you can’t get into it, feel free to stop reading.

My contemporary romance, Late to Leave, is currently updating next door. I hope you’ll give it a look!

Theme: Life is short. Do your job well.