A Collection of Brush and Hairpin

Coming soon: Mistakenly Married to a Wastrel. If you like it, please add it to your reading list and keep an eye out! Once we've got enough readers, we'll launch it right away! Thank you, everyone!! We'll gaze at the stars and ask the heavens, then wait for you at the magpie bridge! Blurb Zhu Zhao was cast aside like trash because her fate was said to be inauspicious. Abandoned in Zhuoling, all she wanted was to live quietly in a half-thatched hut, planting in spring, harvesting in autumn, fishing, gathering firewood, farming, and reading. Life was poor, but at least it was peaceful and clean. But then she went to Yuan'an. She met many people and saw many things. She saw princesses cry out in anguish, noble young ladies weep, and merchant women pluck mournful tunes. She heard beautiful women cry themselves hoarse, graceful women speak with resentment, and jade-like ladies speak in sorrow. It turned out that most women in this world lived as cautiously as she did, as if walking on thin ice. Zhuoling was not small, Yuan'an was vast, and Great Yong was even more boundless. Yet the stories of women like them turned to ash, vanishing into that vast land with a single gust of wind. One day, someone asked her, "Why are our lives worth so little?" Later, she pulled a hairpin from her hair to use as a pen, and took her tears and blood for ink, resolved to write a history of women. "Though no woman appears in the history books, I will use my hairpin as a pen." In the summer of the second year of Qingyuan, Yuan Zhuo met Zhu Zhao in Zhuoling. Everyone said Yuan Zhuo was a scholar in the guise of a treacherous minister, cold and capricious, a wolf to the court and the people, and deserving of a thousand cuts. He agreed wholeheartedly. He looked upon the world with cold eyes. Life was tedious, and no one would care if he died. He had long felt that his life was nothing but a barren wasteland. Until the day she entered his sight, carrying a bundle of wildflowers, her eyes alight with joy. He lowered his gaze and saw the vivid colors of spring in his palm. He never thought that someone as ready to give up on himself as he was could find a reason to live because of her. She did not need to drag him out of the abyss. All she had to do was stand in the light and smile as she beckoned him over. He would turn toward her with all his heart, leaving darkness behind for the light. Reader's Guide: 1. The heroine's growth is central, with the intertwined fates of women in ancient times portrayed. 2. The romance is slow-burn, with a warm, slice-of-life feel and themes of healing. 3. Both leads are virgins. Happy ending. Theme: Though a thousand stand against me, I will go.