A Little Thing Called Revenge

My new novel, The Dodder Vine Has Married Three Times, is now available in full. It features a temporarily monogamous pairing and light, melodramatic suspense.

----- Blurb -----

[A radiant, clever noblewoman bent on revenge x a gentle crown prince, cool as the moon in the distant sky]

-

The emperor is obsessed with the arts of healing and cultivating immortality. Everyone at court, high and low, curries favor with him. There is a shrine every three steps and a temple every five.

Chi Xing was the proud, willful daughter of a high-ranking minister.

But her father was framed and implicated in a wrongful witchcraft case.

Worse, she watched him write a ten-thousand-character blood letter and drink poison, all to prove his innocence.

But the letter was seized, and her father remained branded a criminal. Chi Xing was forced to flee.

From then on, her precious jewel was covered in dust, and she learned her craft among the common folk.

After ten years of suffering, she finally got the chance to take revenge.

She infiltrated her enemy's home in search of evidence to clear her father's name, only to discover someone else was pulling the strings.

That person held immense power, far beyond her reach.

In the death cell, she finally understood the power of influence.

Just as she was at a loss, she happened to save the person who had once been her unattainable first love:

The crown prince, a polished and carefully controlled puppet. He recognized her and reached out to her.

"Miss, you saved my life. I am willing to put myself at your service."

Chi Xing calculated to herself: The crown prince was handsome but useless, just like the moon in the distant sky.

Using the crown prince's introductions, she switched her allegiance to the ruthless Imperial Preceptor, put herself in the middle of the game, and advanced step by step over the bones of the guilty.

At last, she avenged her family, killed the corrupt official with her own hands, and brought justice to the realm.

The people: We don't have much to offer, so let's build our benefactor a statue of gold.

The corrupt official: Did Magistrate Chi behead me today?

The crown prince: That year, amid the gentle spring rain and apricot blossoms... you did that to me... When will you take responsibility for me?

-

But the incompetent emperor took his anger out on her.

Chi Xing had no choice but to fake her death and escape.

After she "died," the usually gentle crown prince, dressed in white and stained with blood, stormed the imperial capital with a sword and drove the foolish emperor from the throne.

When Chi Xing learned what had happened, she made her arduous way back to the palace. She had just climbed onto the wall when she discovered that the new emperor had taken the throne and was holding her memorial tablet in his arms.

And he announced that she was the empress?

Huh?

Reader's Guide

1. The heroine can fight and perform magic tricks (traditional Chinese magic). It's all part of the act.

2. One-on-one, both leads are each other's only partners. A healing, mutually redemptive story with an alpha heroine and an omega hero. Both leads have their flaws and will gradually grow.

----- The melodramatic novel The Dodder Vine Has Married Three Times is now serializing -----

[The dodder vine turns dark / temporarily monogamous pairing / a true crematorium-style pursuit of the wife / bittersweet melodrama]

Jin Zhao, the beautiful daughter of a minor official's concubine, has a dazzling beauty. A slight tremble of her jade-white wrist is enough to capture every greedy gaze.

Yet branded as ill-omened, she is confined to a convent and beaten with willow switches day after day.

She thought she would spend the rest of her life before the Buddha, until she met again the young and impossibly noble powerbroker Pei Zhixue.

Against everyone's objections, he married her.

Pei Zhixue respected and protected her. In their moments of passion, he would kiss the corners of her eyes again and again, asking whether she shed tears only for him.

She always shook her head.

Her childhood friend, her cousin's family, her parents and elder brothers... one after another, they died unjustly.

Of all her beloved family, only Pei Zhixue remained.

Every night before bed, Pei Zhixue would gently stroke the crown of her head. "Don't be afraid, my dear. Your husband will always be here."

Clutching a lock of his black hair, she could finally close her eyes until morning.

-

Until one night, she awoke to find the pillow beside her cold. Jin Zhao went barefoot in search of her husband, only to see the man who had always seemed as pure and serene as an immortal, dressed in white and sitting with his back to a bodhi tree, carving up the servant who had helped her earlier that day, one stroke at a time.

A chill crept over her. The past toppled like a row of dominoes, and thorns sprang from the shadows, bursting the delicate bubbles Jin Zhao had used to shield her eyes.

Her parents, elder brothers, uncle... had they died because her fate brought death to those around her, or...

With no one else to rely on, Jin Zhao could only suppress her trembling and keep playing the part of a dodder vine.

Until one night, as her husband took her without restraint, she met the pitying gaze of her younger brother-in-law through the window.

Jin Zhao quietly shifted to stand between her brother-in-law and her husband, blooming like a white moonflower.

When her husband was away, her brother-in-law held Jin Zhao's bare foot. "Sister-in-law, you know everything now... I'll help you kill him."

Her pale toes pressed a deep dimple into his cheek. Jin Zhao said softly, "But you two are brothers..."

She teased him with careless ease.

"Or perhaps, I hear you're close to the crown prince. If you could introduce us, that would be even better."

-

On the night the Pei family fell, a small sedan chair passed through the sea of flames and entered the imperial palace.

The crown prince, now emperor, had a fierce look in his eyes. He used the tip of his knife to lift away the final barrier between them. "Nothing will ever stand between us again."

Final pairing perspective:

After surviving a brush with death, she became the wife of his sworn enemy, while he was left disabled.

That brat wanted to proclaim his victory, and by a twist of fate, made him witness her moments of passion.

Ling Molang suppressed his fury and kept silent, hoping that silence would let her live a happy life.

Months later, just as he was able to walk with a stagger, he encountered a dazzling beauty beneath the shade of the flowers.

She smiled at him, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

She wasn't happy.

Ling Molang crushed the cup in his hand. So what if she was married? So what if he had neither power nor influence?

He would take the realm and the beauty for himself.

A little scene:

Beneath a banyan tree, the empress lightly lifted a golden vine twined around its branches.

"Dodder vine?" She smiled. "Wrong."

"It's a strangler vine."

#WhereDidHeAndHeAndHeAndHeGo...#

#You Lie Beneath the Yellow Springs, Your Bones Turn to Dust; I Sit in the Pepper Palace, Hairpins Crowning My Head#

Theme: Keep the greater good in your heart