Kill That Canary

Xu Fuzhen first met Huo Xun in her fiancé's study.

Her fiancé was discussing matters with his retainers there when she accidentally wandered in.

All the retainers politely teased her, calling her "Madam," but Huo Xun said nothing and stared at her without restraint.

That night, he stopped her outside the study and told her to wait three years for him. He promised he would marry her in grand style.

Xu Fuzhen was both embarrassed and angry, and immediately told her fiancé every word Huo Xun had said.

She heard that he was beaten so badly he spent nine days in bed, then vanished from the capital.

The next time she heard of him, he was the regent's foremost strategist, holding the post of Vice Chancellor and enjoying great renown.

Her fiancé fell in love with someone else. He broke off their engagement and married another woman, yet still wouldn't let Xu Fuzhen go, scheming to force her to become his concubine.

She died of illness on the eve of her wedding.

When she opened her eyes again, she had returned to the year she was sixteen.

She was still engaged to her fiancé, and the woman who would steal him away had not yet appeared.

Only the night before, Huo Xun had confessed his feelings outside the study, and she had just tattled to her fiancé.

Huo Xun had been beaten and was now lying in a dark woodshed, clinging to life.

This time, she decided to find herself a different fiancé.

Xu Fuzhen took a jar of medicine for his injuries and entered the woodshed where Huo Xun was held. Looking at him lying on the hard, cold bed, she asked, word by word, "Did you mean what you said that night?"

Huo Xun raised his head. Standing in the doorway with the light behind her, she looked like a goddess who had come to save all living beings.

[Reading Guide]

1. A story about a suspicious, guarded young lady and her devoted boyfriend.

2. The leads are each other's only partners, happy ending.

My next book is Mistakenly Ensnared by a Gentleman. Here's the blurb. If it sounds interesting, please visit my author page and add it to your collection.

Xie Wanjun was asked to impersonate another woman and trick the second son of the Marquis of Xuanping, Shi Sui, into marriage.

The second young master Shi thinks highly of himself, and to make matters worse, she made a terrible first impression on him.

For the thousand taels her employer promised her, Wanjun had to steel herself and approach him, but she kept interrupting his work by accident.

At last, the hot-tempered Shi Sui couldn't take it anymore and yelled at her, "Why are you always everywhere I go?"

Wanjun gazed up at him with her limpid, autumn-water eyes, tears glistening on the verge of falling. "Why are you shouting so loudly?"

Later, those sparkling eyes softened his heart, made him give way, and drew him ever deeper.

The cold and haughty second young master Shi proved exceptionally tender and affectionate when he set about winning a woman's heart.

Wanjun couldn't resist spending one night with him.

After that reckless night, she took the money her employer gave her and disappeared.

*

Shi Sui came from a prestigious family. He was handsome and had become a marquis while still young. The line of women who wanted to marry him stretched from Jinling to the northern frontier.

So he never imagined that someone would approach him, seduce him, and make him fall in love, all just to sell his sincere affections for money.

Years later, Shi Sui still remembered that chilly spring night, when snow and moonlight mingled and her red dress lay on the ground.

The brazier in the room was almost out, but as he held her, his blood roared through him, and their heartbeats rang together in the silence of the night.

After that night, she vanished without a trace.

When they met again years later, she had a family of her own and was already a mother.

The little one, with eyes just like hers, gazed at him curiously.

Shi Sui sneered. "You took the money you earned by cheating me and used it to raise a child with another man? Fine. Just fine."

He kept her confined in the marquis's residence, recreating the pleasures of that night over and over.

*

Wanjun thought Shi Sui hated her.

But one day, as she passed the turn in the corridor, she happened to hear him whispering to her daughter: "Little one, how about letting me be your father?"

One-on-one romance, both leads have only been with each other, happy ending, the heroine runs away while pregnant.

The hero starts out innocent and turns dark later, going mad for love and becoming the other man.

Theme: Don't be a caged songbird. Women should stand on their own.