Commonplace Affairs in the Mountains

My new novel, After Dumping Her Ex, the Parasitic Vine Heroine Rises to the Top, is now available. The blurb is at the end. Please visit my author page and add it to your collection.

Blurb:

When Rao Xu was twelve, she lost her parents. She struggled to survive under the care of her grandparents and uncles, who favored boys over girls. At sixteen, they planned to marry her off for the bride price so they could send her male cousin to a private school.

Looking at a house full of relatives who were as vicious as wolves and tigers beneath their kindly faces, Rao Xu decided to marry herself off before they could do it for her!

She couldn't find anyone suitable, and was about to give up and find someone to muddle through life with. Then the village's notorious tough guy came to propose.

At eighteen, You Man was conscripted to fight the barbarians. Everyone thought he was as good as dead, but somehow he returned in one piece! Less than two months later, he fell out with his family, split from them, and moved into a dilapidated earthen house beside a bamboo grove.

The villagers thought, Just wait and see. How is a grown man supposed to manage on his own? He'll end up crawling back to his father and stepmother, tail between his legs.

You Man's biased father and ruthless stepmother thought the same.

But then he actually got married?!

And his life just kept getting better!

The people in both the Rao and You families were so furious they nearly coughed up blood, their eyes red with envy.

Rao Xu: Who cares what you think?

You Man: My wife is right!

Tips:

1. Set in an imagined ancient era. A gentle, slow-paced farming life, with no imperial examinations or court politics, no golden finger, and no sudden riches.

2. One man and one woman, with both leads remaining faithful to each other.

Coming soon: After Dumping Her Ex, the Parasitic Vine Heroine Rises to the Top

Blurb:

Shen Qingyun, a flower seller's daughter, is jealous, domineering, unreasonable, and vain.

One stroke of luck lands her a marriage into the Prince of Xiang's household. She marries the younger son, a man whose grace and bearing are the talk of the capital and whose literary talent is dazzling. She becomes the prince's official wife and rises from obscurity to become a noblewoman everyone has to flatter. Even the humble Shen family benefits from her good fortune and moves up in the world.

People complain bitterly, yet secretly envy her. They grit their teeth and pray that she'll be cast aside soon.

Shen Qingyun doesn't care. But she never expected her husband to go astray halfway through their marriage. He stays out all night and treats her with cold distance, as if his heart has turned elsewhere.

At home, her in-laws pressure her to produce an heir, while outside, a rival is making her move.

Then she catches the husband who once vowed his love laughing and playing with another woman, hoping to keep concubines and enjoy the company of multiple wives.

Shen Qingyun, who secretly learned from a doctor that she was unable to bear children: ...

As the branch beneath her threatens to break, Shen Qingyun refuses to fall. She quietly turns her attention to the ruler of the realm, rumored to be indifferent to women and cold-hearted.

*

Cheng Jin ascended the throne at eighteen and took power at twenty. Devoted to Buddhism, he made everyone at court believe that the dynasty would soon have its first emperor to shave his head and become a monk.

Everyone knew he was aloof and desireless, with no interest in love or women. Then, at a banquet, he saw the Prince's wife, famed throughout the capital for her beauty and jealousy. For the first time, he tasted envy, and could not stop thinking about her.

The first time: At a palace banquet, wine stained his clothes. As he changed, he encountered Shen Qingyun, who had gotten lost while drunk. With eyes like autumn waters and a graceful bearing, she seemed to startle a wild goose in flight. In a moment of inexplicable impulse, he caught the edge of her robe, only for her to pull away at once.

The second time: Beneath the lanterns on the main street, Cheng Jin watched from afar as she strolled hand in hand with the man she called her husband, laughing and chatting happily. Jealousy flared in him, and he ordered his guards to scatter the crowd, hoping to play the hero and rescue her.

The third time: ...

The ruler was unmarried, but Luofu already had a husband. Cheng Jin believed himself to be calm and restrained, and held back time and again. But after one chance encounter after another, he no longer wanted to hold back!

*

Cheng Jin once wanted only to be a wise ruler, remembered with honor in the history books. Later, he wanted only to be Shen Qingyun's captive, gladly lost beneath her skirts.

Tips:

1. The heroine is not faithful, while the hero is. The heroine was in a marriage in all but name with her former husband for four years.

2. The heroine's infertility in the blurb is real. She will not have children even after getting together with the hero.

3. The heroine is a clever beauty and a parasitic vine. She's stunning, and both the hero and the other male lead fall for her at first sight.

4. The phrase "The ruler is unmarried, but Luofu already has a husband" is adapted from the Han Dynasty folk song "Mulberry by the Lane."

Theme: Create a good life for yourself