But He Can't See

*A preview of my upcoming novel: The Young Emperor and Empress. A sage-like, ruthless woman who plays by her own rules and won't be moved by money or persuasion × a shameless, imperious, noble-born temptress and master manipulator. (A princess of a fallen kingdom × a nobleman of the former dynasty.) Two spoiled aristocrats join forces on the road to seizing power. Full blurb at the end.

*Key points: An unconventional marriage-first, love-later romance / blind male lead (he won't recover) / voice acting industry / excellent cook. [A little winter sweet romance]

*She once drew close to him where he couldn't see.

And he wasn't unaffected, either. (Both are virgins.)

*A fake know-it-all, competitive sunshine girl × laid-back, gentle, blind voice actor

Qin Die applied for a job at a voice acting studio, believing that every profession had its own specialties.

Only to find that the boss was Chi Wansang, the man whose repeated rejections she'd run away from in a panic.

He had even gone completely blind.

He had reined in the arrogance of his youth. Gentle as a tree, he stood in silence, without joy or sorrow, amid the light and dust, as if he would stand there forever.

She looked at her future boss, unable to bring herself to admit who he was.

So, taking advantage of the fact that he couldn't see, she blurted out loudly, "I'm ugly, my parents are dead, nobody wants me, you're blind, you're broke, and nobody wants you either. Let's get married."

Later, Boss Chi simply pulled out a black card. "Use this to pay your tuition. Consider it employee training expenses."

"The villa district is too far away, the river-view apartment is too high up. Do you want to live in a sea-view apartment?"

What was the big deal? Couldn't a studio boss have a little money?

He was like a poem, gentle and quiet. Slowly drifting words and pages, carrying the scent of wood, suffused with sunlight, followed the breeze into her dreams.

He said, "Close your eyes. Don't be afraid. I've been waiting for you in the dark all along. I've never left."

But isn't everyone's secret identity always either about to be exposed or on the way to being exposed?

She thought she'd hidden it perfectly,

but one day, he unconsciously called her by her old name,

and she found a love letter he'd kept in a drawer, a letter he had never received all those years ago,

and she heard him say with her own ears that he wanted a divorce.

That night, Chi Wansang's voice trembled as he restrained himself from tracing her cheek with his fingertip. "Qin Die, can I... touch you and find out what you look like?"

His usually gentle, unruffled, mature voice shattered completely in that moment, laid bare by the moonlight spilling in...

Reader's Guide:

* A story about healing. Neither saves the other; each saves themself from the flames a thousand times over.

* A reunion after a breakup, long planned in secret.

* "Having children is a selfish desire. Decent parents should visit now and then; those who aren't fit to be parents should stay far away to spare everyone the trouble.", From the TV drama The Best Thing

* The story begins when they are adults. The events of the past are laid out in order here for clarity:

In elementary school, he was her older brother's friend, but he often took on the role of an older brother in his friend's place.

Both their names had the character Sang in them, and she thought he was her actual older brother.

She often climbed into Chi Wansang's little bed and refused to get out.

After various upheavals, they met again in middle school. She fell for him first and tried every way she could think of to confess, but he remained unmoved.

Meanwhile, he quietly counted down the days until the college entrance exams. A boy should be the one to confess. No matter how she did on the exams, he would give her the letter.

I like you.

I like you very much.

I've liked you for a long, long time.

But she moved away.

Note: This is entirely fictional. Don't read yourself into it. You don't need to tell me if you drop it.

Preview of the Emperor and Empress novel:

* Two powerful, spoiled aristocrats | Three-year age gap | Flirtatious male lead | Supernatural fantasy

* A sage-like, unconventional, ruthless woman × a shameless, noble-born, seductive master manipulator (princess of a fallen kingdom × nobleman of the former dynasty)

* A story about idealists: there are times when people can defy heaven, and heaven never leaves people without a path forward.

I. Long ago, she was thirteen and he was sixteen.

A young prodigy and a girl still in her early years, their lives had already been promised to each other.

Childhood sweethearts, envied by every couple.

He casually stripped the pith from a bamboo stalk, held it between his lips, and lay back with his hands behind his head, turning to wait for her. "We might have to stay together forever. You won't get tired of me, will you?"

The girl's childish innocence still showed on her face, but her words sounded remarkably mature. "I suppose that'll do, Second Brother."

II. Later, though, war broke out, something neither of them had expected.

They were forced apart.

But when he came of age, he rode three horses to death, hurrying back from Beiting to Xiaozhong Mountain.

He found the girl looking just as exhausted, standing crookedly amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, blood at the corner of her mouth, eyes half-closed in a bitter smile.

The crimson on the curved blade in her hand was still dripping in thin streams.

Her lips seemed to say, "For crying out loud, you've got to be kidding me."

?...

Still wearing his armor, the young man quickly turned away to hide his reddened eyes. A low scoff escaped his throat.

It sounded more like a sigh of relief.

"It's been years, and you still haven't learned how to greet people."

In the years they'd been apart, she had already died once. A crescent-shaped scar now ran from the corner of her right eye to her cheekbone, and a shallow scar across the bridge of her nose had yet to heal.

Her long hair was tied high, and her delicate face had gained a touch of ferocity. With a casual sidelong glance, she looked even more ruthless.

In the years they'd been apart, he had become half crippled, too.

III. Now, dear readers, the story truly begins.

People said the current empress had submitted to the immortal master.

In her first year, she shot hawks from a thousand miles away. In the second, she chased birds across sheer cliffs. In the third, she commanded ghosts and spirits by the thousands.

She cracked her whip in the wind, and neither gods nor Buddhas could stop her.

Then there was the King of Beiting, who submitted to the northern tribes at eighteen, yet drove them back more than seven hundred li.

He captured five kings, repelled six states, and went on a blood-soaked rampage.

But no one mentioned that the unruly young noble everyone talked about had grown frail, coughing every few steps.

The Prince of Beiting gave a weak wave to the handsome figure ahead. "Wait for me. You might get hurt when the fighting starts."

She reached up, took off the red cord tying her hair, and wound it tightly around her wrist. With four talismans held between her fingers, she radiated pride and said with a smile, "It's fine, Prince Qi. I'll protect you."

The girl turned and snapped her fingers. A row of shifty-eyed little ghosts burst into view behind her.

"Anyone eavesdropping is a ghost!"

The ghosts: "..."

In short: The empress and emperor travel incognito. It's silly and brainless, and the worldbuilding changes at my whim.

*Without faith, without God, nothing is forbidden.

(Blurb screenshot dated October 28, 2024.)

Theme: The sun rises as always, and the road keeps going forward