A Banquet to Welcome Spring

A Fake Death, a Reunion, and a General Who Claims They Barely Know Each Other

Bright, clever heroine vs. sinister, fierce hero

★ Heroine:

Mei Yao is the most cherished daughter of the Barbarian King of the Southern Frontier. When she was fifteen, she rescued a young Xi slave named Xiao Yu from beneath the executioner's blade. He was handsome, but stubborn to the core. Every time she gave him a task, he managed to disappoint her. He was arrogant, halfhearted, and scornful of doing his duty. She couldn't even scold him without him talking back, and his only reply was always, "Miss can find someone else."

In a fit of anger, she gave him a few lashes. She should have felt better afterward, but seeing him like that only made her more upset. He wouldn't admit he was wrong, beg for mercy, or change his ways.

She found one way after another to torment him. Then enemy soldiers raided the camp, and the next time she saw him, all that remained was a mutilated corpse. She cried herself hoarse. After that, nightmares plagued her every night, and she never again saw the clouds of Mount Wu.

Two years later, the emperor in the capital kept her as a hostage under the pretext of finding her a husband.

At a spring banquet, she encountered General Yan Yu, the fearsome warrior recently returned from the northwest. One look at him left her stunned. That face was unmistakably the same as her dead young slave's!

Her eyes reddened as she asked tentatively, her voice trembling, "General, have you ever been to the Southern Frontier?"

His rough fingertip brushed her eye. His answer was gentle yet distant: "Never."

He refused to acknowledge their past, so she began testing him in secret. During the spring purification festival, she deliberately showed affection toward his elder brother while praying for good fortune. Afterward, he lured her into a hot spring. In the misty heat, he gripped her waist and pulled her against him, his chest pressed to her back, then bit her shoulder.

"That hurts," she whimpered, trembling.

"Bear it!" His voice was hoarse and harsh, and he bullied her until she cried.

As a hostage, she had to tread carefully at the heart of imperial power, while he schemed tirelessly to clear the late Crown Prince's name.

Reason told her to stay away from trouble, but her feelings sent her flying straight into the flames.

★ Hero:

There are three things Yan Yu hates most in this life:

First, being born into wealth only to become a pawn in a power struggle.

Second, going undercover in the Southern Frontier only to be toyed with by a young girl.

Third, after faking his death, hearing that she had clung to his "corpse" and cried until she lost her voice, then refused every marriage proposal. It felt like a needle had pierced his heart.

When they met again at the spring banquet, the possessiveness in his heart spiraled out of control. He pursued her relentlessly, pressing his advantage and demanding her affection. He wanted the once-arrogant little barbarian princess who had toyed with and tormented him to plead with reddened eyes and a soft voice, calling out to him until he was satisfied.

He has two obsessions in this life:

Help his elder brother reclaim the throne, and marry her openly and honorably.

★ Sweet Romance Guide ★

◎ A sweet romance, but not a wish-fulfillment story. There is no instant face-slapping revenge. I can only promise a happy ending. One-on-one romance, both leads sexually inexperienced, happy ending.

◎ The heroine grows over time. She's sweet and pampered, but not weak. Lowering herself is an expression of love and a calculated strategy. The hero is strong and tragic, fierce but not deranged. Compromise is just another expression of love and playful fun.

◎ Fast-paced and focused on romantic wish fulfillment, but it may not suit everyone's tastes.

[Blurb saved on 2025.3.19]

Check out my newly completed love-and-hate romance: A Jade in Hiding (formerly The Former Crown Princess I Kept Hidden)

◎ A gifted craftswoman from a fallen kingdom x a warlord who rose amid a time of chaos

◎ He holds a gun to her from the start, and later he holds a gun to her

On the night the Kingdom of Xizhu fell, Crown Princess Nan Chu had just crawled out of a pile of corpses when a cold spearpoint pressed against her throat.

Following the spear's edge with her eyes, she saw a man in armor, weapon in hand, standing in the firelight. Rainwater mingled with blood as it trickled down his armor. His eyes were even colder than the spearpoint.

He was Xiao Chong, a commander of the Great Liang army. He grabbed her by the throat, hauled her from the corpse pile, and pinned her onto his horse.

A rumor spread through the army that she was the golden songbird kept by the Living King of Hell. But Nan Chu knew Xiao Chong wanted the national treasure, The Treatise on the Creation of Things, crafted over generations by her family's master artisans. To keep it from falling into enemy hands, the entire Nan clan burned their books and died for their country. She became the sole living copy of the treatise.

He crushed all her faith in her country, her family, and her sovereign. He plotted against her at every turn and gradually broke her in.

She struggled to survive. To save artisans and her people, she was forced to help him open an underground palace and retrieve the imperial family's treasures, use her family's teachings to build canals and improve farmland, and rely on the Nan family's prestige to pacify the people. Every task was difficult and tore her apart.

But when the Great Liang imperial court cornered her and left her close to death, he risked his life and future to stage a coup and take her back.

He used her, and he protected her. She kept him in check, and she relied on him. Then one night in the hot spring, the man she had outmaneuvered suddenly appeared and locked her in his arms, demanding hoarsely, "Your book records every craft under heaven. Is there a page that can teach you how to tame a man who's... let his thoughts run wild?"

She had always thought she was merely a public treasure he coveted. Only later did she understand that she had long since become the treasure he kept close to his heart.

**

Xiao Chong marched across Xizhu to seize The Treatise on the Creation of Things and avenge his father, whom the Nan clan had framed years ago.

He hadn't expected the Nan family to burn their books and die for their country. He captured only Nan Chu, who had survived among the corpses. He thought he had caught a pretty little bird that would submit after a few harsh words. But beneath her delicate appearance, she had a backbone of steel. After several clashes with her, he was the one who lost his composure first.

He taught her strategy, took blades for her, and used the Tiger Tally as collateral to force a coup against the imperial court for her sake, making exception after exception. He had spent half his life killing and calculating every move, but he never anticipated that she would be his undoing.

The Nan family owed him a reunion, and she had repaid him with herself.

He owed her a country, so on a night when spring returned to their homeland, he held her against him and whispered hoarsely, "I'll give you back... the spring floods, the summer harvest, full granaries in autumn, and warm, long winter nights."

With every sentence, he held her tighter, turning her shy, vexed replies into burning gasps.

[Nan Chu: What floods? What harvest? Speak plainly. Xiao Chong: ...I'm doing it.]

[Bonus Scene]

Nan Chu: If you dance with a wolf, you need to find a way to get a grip on a few of his weak spots.

Xiao Chong: (pulls up his shirt) This one's handy. Grab this one.

[Reading Guide]

◎ This is not a wish-fulfillment story. The heroine's country falls from the start, and she has to climb out of the ruins at rock bottom. She is oppressed in the early chapters. She turns situations to her advantage to break through, rather than confronting people head-on. She won't mouth off or crack wise at the hero, who could crush her at any moment, or at the conquerors. There are no instant face-slapping scenes within three moves.

◎ The hero doesn't brood or torture himself. Don't expect him to pine in bitter misery when he can't get what he wants. A warlord's nature is open and direct, with no shame and a talent for straightforward schemes. Early on, he's all about testing, taming, claiming, and using her. Later, it's all, "Mine, mine, mine," with his tail wagging.

◎ A battle of wits, love won by force, mutual pursuit, and both angst and sweetness. One-on-one romance, happy ending, with an age gap of about seven or eight years.

Theme: Helping each other become their best selves