The Sparrow in My Sleeve

*Please add my upcoming novel, The Oriole in the Bedchamber, to your favorites! Lin Que was a tea-picking girl. When she was eighteen, she took in a handsome son-in-law as her husband. A year after they married, her husband A Zhao received a letter from the capital. It said that his uncle had an urgent matter and wanted him to come to the capital. Lin Que gave A Zhao all the money the family had, so he would have enough for the journey. She waited for him to return once he had taken care of things. But Lin Que waited for half a year and her husband never came back. Worried for his safety, she packed a few belongings and went to the capital. Only then did she learn that A Zhao would not be returning. He had gone back to the capital and become the Imperial Crown Prince. In six months, he was to marry the daughter of General Huo. No one knew that before A Zhao became the Imperial Crown Prince, he already had a wife. Lin Que left in sorrow. She did not return to Lihua Village. Instead, she went to an unfamiliar village, hoping to ask a matchmaker to arrange a marriage so she could settle down for good. Unexpectedly, A Zhao, now emperor, burst into a teahouse with his troops. He glared at her darkly and dragged Lin Que, who was in the middle of discussing a match, back to Chang'an. The bird in the forest had lost its freedom. Someone asked the Son of Heaven what Lin Que was to him. Li Zhao: "A bird in my sleeve, a possession in my hand." "What if one day the bird flies away?" Li Zhao: "Then I'll catch it again, break its wings, and put it in a golden cage, where it will never be allowed to fly away again." Reading notice: Coercive possession and melodrama. Blurb written on April 13, 2024. *Please add my upcoming novel, The Oriole in the Bedchamber, to your favorites! Si Ying was the daughter of a notorious imperial consort. After her mother's death, she was sent to Zhao as a hostage, where she fell in love with the Crown Prince of Zhao. Shen Yu was the son of a disgraced consort. After his mother's family fell into decline, he was sent to Zhao as a hostage, determined to return to Qi and compete for the throne. Neither of them was favored in their homeland. They were both miserable princes or princesses, cast off as hostages in an enemy state. After an accident, they were both afflicted by a love curse. Si Ying became "deeply in love" with Shen Yu, and Shen Yu became "unwilling to marry anyone but her." The ruler of Zhao therefore arranged their marriage, and they were to wed a year later. Si Ying heard that the curse could be lifted after they slept together ten times. They made a pact: once the curse was lifted, they would end their engagement and go their separate ways, each free to marry whoever they wished. After the curse was lifted, Shen Yu, who had helped Si Ying become crown princess, regretted it. The day before the Crown Prince of Zhao's wedding, Crown Princess Si Ying disappeared. The people searched all over the Zhao palace for her, but could not find her. They had no idea she was trapped in the bedchamber of the new emperor of Qi. Si Ying, eyes brimming with tears and skin slick with sweat, asked him why he had broken his promise. Shen Yu kissed the center of her forehead and said, "I want the nightingale in my bedchamber to sing for me alone." Theme: Born free