Painting Away the Dust

This is my first book, and I lacked experience. Problems with the outline caused the main plot to veer off course as I wrote, so I'm putting it on hold for now. I'll revise the outline and fill in the gaps later.

[Clear-headed, clever female book-restoration artisan x Proud, noble minister who stirs up the political world]

Everyone said that Yide Academy on Mount Zijin in Taizhou was the starting point of every Dayin scholar's dream of a career in government. Those who came to study there were all ambitious and full of drive.

But Fang Zhan, who had grown up at the academy, found his peers unbearably noisy as they spouted endlessly about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, loyalty, and country. So he spent his days loafing around in the back courtyard, feeding strays and passing the time in a daze.

Then one day, he noticed a little servant in the library in the back courtyard who never bothered to be nice to anyone.

At first, he clung to her just to relieve his boredom, inventing a tragic backstory and pretending to be destitute. He never expected the little servant to fall for his lies. One day, she suddenly waved a hand and declared with conviction, "So what if you eat a little more? Marry me, and I'll keep you! But first, you have to elope with me."

But when the appointed day came, Fang Zhan waited and waited in the mountain breeze, and the only person who had ever wanted to take responsibility for his life never showed.

Han Sui, daughter of a minor official in the capital, was tricked into marrying into the Bai family of Dingzhou. After two years of enduring exploitation and humiliation, she bided her time and finally chose an auspicious day to take down her husband's entire family by herself, win her divorce, and travel a thousand miles to join her father, who had been posted to Yunzhou.

She sounds like a ruthless woman who takes revenge with relish, but in truth, she was afraid.

She feared that if her shocking actions came to light, they would damage her father and brothers' reputations as officials. She feared being recognized by the noblewomen of the capital and bringing trouble to her cousin, who had married into a powerful family. And she feared that her smiling, two-faced aunt back home would try to harm her again.

But she was even more afraid of meeting the man she had once loved and abandoned at the lowest point in her life.

She had even had a nightmare. In it, he learned that the woman who had abandoned him to marry into a wealthy family had ended up in such a wretched state. That cheerful, carefree man actually clapped his hands and cried, "Serves her right!"

Han Sui sat bolt upright in bed, shaken, yet secretly relieved. He was only a servant living a thousand miles away, not some important figure she might run into every day. Surely she would never see him again in this lifetime.

In the fifteenth year of Chengqian, Fang Zhan, nephew of Prince Gui of Dayin, was promoted to Deputy Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate and temporarily dispatched by imperial order to investigate a case in Yunzhou. But on the very first day he entered the city, he saw in the crowd the girl who had once sworn she would marry him and support him for the rest of his life.

Han Sui, shocked: Didn't you say you had no one and had sold yourself into servitude?

Fang Zhan, guilty: Didn't you say you'd buy my freedom and support me for life?

Han Sui, guilty: I've already cured my lovesick brain.

Fang Zhan, shameless: I haven't. It's gotten even worse.

[Comeback Arc]

After her divorce, Han Sui no longer wanted to waste her life trapped in the inner quarters.

To avoid jumping from one pit of fire into another, and to keep the people she cared about from suffering for her unorthodox behavior, she resolved to use the book-restoration skills passed down by her grandfather to live quietly under an assumed name, supporting herself in the city.

Yet fate seemed determined to keep her from living a low-key, luxurious life...

"Reading Guide"

*Second chance romance. In the flashbacks, the heroine pursues the hero. After their reunion, the hero goes from deliberately distant and aloof to desperately competing with every other man to win her back.

*One-on-one romance, both leads have no past romantic or sexual partners.

Theme: Everyone should have a skill to make their way in the world