Yearning for Spring Splendor

[Scheming noblewoman fallen on hard times x calculating, devoted prince]

[One-on-one, mutually faithful, feel-good romance]

The dance ends with a swirl of silk sleeves and crimson skirts, and red silk streamers rain down across the hall.

She is the most famous dancer in the Western Capital. She performs for a living but never sells her body, yet still holds her place as the top courtesan.

The world only knows her as Yunshang.

No one knows that she is the young daughter of the Li family, slaughtered in the capital's greatest case ten years ago.

At dawn, she was a daughter of a wealthy family. By dusk, she was entertaining men for money.

She knows she doesn't belong in the mud. She has only one choice: climb her way up to uncover the truth about what happened back then.

Chu Ji, the emperor's third son, was named Prince of Ruyin at birth and ranks first among the princes.

Rumor says he is ruthless and inscrutable, a demon straight from hell.

Yet this man, who has always kept his distance from women, spends a fortune at the pleasure house just to win a beauty's smile.

He even sends an eight-man sedan chair and a procession dressed in red through the city to welcome her into his residence.

Everyone says the woman is deeply calculating and deliberately got close to him so she could rise from the branches and become a phoenix.

Chu Ji doesn't care.

Beneath the glow of countless candles and with wine filling the cups, who can say for sure which of them is the prey and which the hunter?

A little teaser

[Their first meeting]

"You should know that my patience has limits."

"You're nothing but an ant, a blade of grass. Why would I bother lifting a hand against you?"

[He falls for her]

"As it happens, the very thing my father considers unforgivable about that woman is something your son willingly embraces."

"Some people only need one glance to make you fall for them."

Perhaps it was fate. He was destined to become her devoted admirer, and die at her feet.

[Reading Guide]

1. The heroine is beautiful, capable, and tragic, and knows how to use her wits. She's not looking for redemption. The hero is deeply calculating. Readers who demand morally upright characters, please steer clear.

2. An intense push and pull. The heroine seems to take the initiative early on, but she stays clearheaded. The hero seems cold, but his heart already belongs to someone.

A word about the upcoming novel

Next historical romance: Eighty Thousand Springs in Half a Moment

[Strategic noblewoman and adviser x brilliant general with a glorious military record]

In the bitter winter of the second year of Taiyuan, war fires raged across the land, and Jianye was blanketed by an unusually heavy snowfall.

Looking down from the high platform, Xie Chang sees a woman in a dark green cloak, holding a paper umbrella beneath the falling snow.

Her clear black-and-white eyes shimmer with tears. Her lips are red without rouge, her brows black without paint. She resembles a peony veiled in mist, or a beautiful jade statue with a warm glaze, walking toward him over fallen plum blossoms in the snow.

His attendant tells him the plan for the southward crossing came from this young lady.

At one glance, Xie Chang senses a kindred spirit: just as clearheaded and self-possessed, just as perceptive.

Wang Miaoyi has long heard of the famous young men of the Xie family. Among their generation, Xie Xu is handsome and refined despite his frail health, while Xie Lian is aloof and reserved, and excels at philosophical discourse. But neither matches the reputation of the young Lord Xie.

"The nameless are trapped like ants, while the famous are doubted by the world." He slays gods who block his way and Buddhas who stand in his path, yet the world says he does it only for wealth and status.

Seated atop his tall horse, Xie Chang wears a hairpin and holds a spear, glaring coldly as he declares:

[A true man leads an army into mortal danger for the sake of his country and its people, not for personal fame.]

*Reading Guide

1. A fictional Eastern Jin setting. Historical purists, please steer clear.

2. Everything I write is one-on-one romance! No angst!

3. The heroine may seem gentle, but her intelligence is unmatched. She's no naive sweetheart.

Theme: The past is shrouded in darkness and cannot be reclaimed, but the road ahead is long and bright.