When I First Met My Teacher as a Boy

On a rainy night in Shengjing, Qing Yao met sixteen-year-old Xu Yun in the dim glow of a candle.

Seventy years later, the old man, frail with illness yet still teaching and nurturing his students, had been a handsome, somber youth.

After secretly sitting in on Xu Yun's classes for three years, Qing Yao learned human speech and took human form.

Xu Yun never knew she was his student, but he was worthy of being called her mentor.

Xu Yun never married or had children. As he lay dying, his only companion was a careless young page. Qing Yao asked the elders of her clan to help her return to Xu Yun's youth. She would find him a match who could stay by his side for life.

She would make sure Master Xu had a house full of children and grandchildren, someone to rely on in old age, and a fulfilling life.

--

Xu Yun was born on the fifth day of the fifth month. Shengjing endured days of torrential rain, and on the day he turned one month old, his mother and aunt vanished without a trace. Their disappearance remains an unsolved mystery in Shengjing to this day.

Not long after his mother disappeared, his father fell from a cliff and died while searching for his wife.

People of the time all lamented, "A child born on the fifth day kills his father and mother. If you raise him, calamity and death will befall his parents."

The year Xu Yun turned sixteen, a great drought struck Shengjing. The earth cracked, trees caught fire, and the wells ran dry.

The Chi Dragon God issued an oracle: it would bring rain only if a young gentleman of the Xu family became its servant.

As he fell into the Chi Pool, Xu Yun despaired of everything. But in a daze, he felt someone gently tug at his sleeve from behind. Through the haze, he seemed to see A Shao, the maid who tended the fire at his home, jump in after him.

From then on, with A Shao at his side, Xu Yun began to uncover the truth behind his mother and aunt's disappearance sixteen years ago, one step at a time, in a Shengjing overrun by monsters and ghosts and tangled in mist.

Reader's Guide:

1. A spirited little bird who strives to repay a debt × a lonely, steadfast young man

2. This is a fictional setting. Please don't scrutinize the details.

3. Babies born on any day are wonderful. The male lead's mother and aunt disappeared, and his father died for reasons that had nothing whatsoever to do with him being born on the fifth day of the fifth month.

4. Tastes and perspectives vary greatly. If it's not for you, please click away and leave politely.

Below is my upcoming novel, A Miss Yuan Comes to the County

In the warm spring of the third month, a beautiful young woman moved into the shabbiest riverside house in Yu County. Her looks were unforgettable at first sight.

Somehow, word spread that Yuan Yue had a pretty face and had come to Yu County to find a wealthy family to marry into.

Before long, more than a dozen matchmakers came calling, but Yuan Yue turned them all down.

The very next day, she was sitting beneath the Immortal Bridge, painting portraits of passersby for ten coins each.

People crossing the bridge stopped in their tracks. They paid no attention to the spring scenery, watching only her.

Wen Lu was the handsome son of the Grand Secretary, and the princess of the realm had taken a liking to him. But he had no desire to become her consort and insisted on returning home to care for his sick grandfather.

Those in the know whispered behind his back: "What a shallow playboy. He thinks the princess is ugly, so he's willing to throw away his career and hide back home!"

When Wen Lu first met the scheming, silver-tongued female artist, he assumed she was putting on an act to raise her value and marry into a powerful family.

That was, until he watched her rise from a street artist to the top of Yue Lin Tower, taking her place as the finest painter in Yu County.

Two hours passed aboard the painted boat...

Yuan Yue gazed at the fireworks blooming over the lake, her lovely smile unchanged. "Young Master Wen, what exactly did you invite me here to paint?"

Wen Lu gently turned her by the shoulder toward a large bronze mirror. "The two people in the mirror. Let's see whether they suit each other."

Thesis: See the beauty in everyone