Wild Geese Cry Over the Capital

[The new novel, Picked Up a Demon King as My Husband, is now open for advance follows. Please add it to your list.]

Revised blurb for The Cries of Wild Geese Over the Capital, 2025.6.12

Blurb

When Jiang Shiwan was eight, the dam was destroyed and a flood broke out. Four hundred thousand people drowned, and a million more were displaced.

For some unknown reason, her father, the Minister of Works, mysteriously disappeared.

Her entire family was wiped out. Only she survived.

In an instant, she went from a young lady of an eminent family to a prisoner.

She remembered her father as an incorruptible and conscientious official, a truly upright and exemplary statesman. How could he have met such a tragic end?

Ten years later, the now stunningly beautiful Jiang Shiwan becomes the top courtesan at Hualou, hoping to uncover the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Though she appears to live in luxury, her secret investigation hits one dead end after another. She is met with contempt and suffers abuse.

By chance, she learns that Si Yao, Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, is an impartial and incorruptible official who refuses to curry favor with the powerful and has solved countless extraordinary cases.

She secretly approaches him to gain his help.

What? He has no interest in women?

Jiang Shiwan uses her beauty to make the first move and seduce him. Si Yao stays cautious at every turn, parrying all her advances.

She deliberately spreads rumors and sets a trap to lure him to Hualou, where he will spend the night with her.

“Vice Minister Si, solve this chess puzzle, and tonight I will be yours.” Jiang Shiwan sits on his lap with a tender look in her eyes, her delicate hand caressing his handsome face.

Si Yao gives a roguish smile, places a chess piece to secure victory, and leans close to her ear. “Miss, please behave with decorum.”

Jiang Shiwan rises in shock, thrown completely off balance.

*

After Si Yao makes light of her, Jiang Shiwan is determined to prove that she is more than just a pretty face.

Brilliant and quick-witted, she passes the examination to join the Court of Judicial Review and helps him solve the Courtesan's Fall case, the Hat Demon case, the Supernatural Apparition case, and many others.

In the Courtesan's Fall case, she defies the threats of powerful men and decisively kills the son of the Prefect of Taihu.

In the Hat Demon case, beneath a bright full moon, she swings her blade at a pack of wolves watching her hungrily in the night.

In the Supernatural Apparition case, a ghost leads people astray in the mountains, and she seizes the mastermind behind it.

Jiang Shiwan's gaze is cool. “I'm more than just a pretty face. I have talent and intelligence, too.”

Si Yao steps forward, his expression tender. “I know all your tricks, yet I willingly fall for them. I'll take your case.”

[Reading Guide]

* A powerful duo's revenge story with face-slapping and mutual redemption.

* The heroine takes down scoundrels and humiliates them; the hero pretends to play along, then falls for real. They love and fight each other.

* The story follows the heroine as she secretly searches for clues to clear her father's name and solves related cases alongside the hero, exploring the price of revenge and the meaning of forgiveness.

* After enduring many hardships, they come to understand the true meaning of love.

Blurb for Picked Up a Demon King as My Husband, upcoming novel

2026.2.22

Shen Yuening drinks pear blossom wine as she leans against the second-floor railing of Hualou.

The Demon King gives her a faintly amused, hazy look. He holds out the pear blossom wine in his hand, winks at her, and drains it in one go. With an arm around the courtesan and a smug, beaming expression, he heads upstairs.

She is so angry she nearly faints.

Shen Yuening is merely a “quack” who wanders the streets selling herbal plasters to the sick. She has no great ambitions and just wants to lie flat and live like a lazy fish.

Because she once saved his life, he insists on repaying her kindness with “a lifetime together.” He even wants to help her expand into demon territory and grow her medical practice.

Tonight she drags him to a brothel to listen to music, hoping to teach him a lesson and make him give up on the idea.

Who could have guessed he would fit right in here, as if he were in his element?

Damn it, he has turned the tables on her. She watches him chat and laugh with the courtesan as they walk into her boudoir.

She jumps down from the railing and follows close behind.

She put a sleeping drug in the wine. If he really spends the night in the courtesan's room, she will have to pay two hundred taels of gold for the room.

She wets her finger with saliva, pokes a hole in the window paper, and peers inside eagerly.

“How can no one be in there? I clearly saw them walk in together.”

Night has fallen. The lantern light and candle shadows mingle beneath the eaves. Shen Yuening mutters to herself and slowly pushes open the carved door.

As soon as she steps inside, the cool fragrance of agarwood and cherry blossoms wafts toward her. She looks around and walks to the bed, only to find the Demon King lying there in disheveled clothes, dead drunk.

Shen Yuening covers her mouth, her face bright red. She is just about to flee when he grabs her from the bed and pulls her into his arms, pinches her plump cheek, and plants a fierce kiss on her.

Reading Guide

1. Bickering enemies, funny banter, and everyday antics.

2. The aloof immortal is an obsession, but the sharp-tongued, protective Demon King is the one she truly wants.

3. The hero was once the most promising candidate in the immortal realm to ascend to godhood. His rival, the immortal Shubai, schemed to drive him into the demon realm to fend for himself.

3. Told mainly from the heroine's perspective, with some chapters from the hero's perspective. One heroine, two male leads.

4. Later, the two develop feelings for each other, but a centuries-old pact forbidding intermarriage between the demon and immortal clans stands in their way. Prepare for angst later on.

Theme: The world is full of suffering. Only you can save yourself.