Did I Gain an Empire After Faking My Death?

Written in the winter of 2022, when I was in eighth grade. A little immature, but still a memory.

[Click through to my next modern romance, "As the Winter Night Slowly Warms" (complete manuscript ready). Please add it to your collection~]

Chen Yinglan was orphaned as a child and lived under someone else's roof. After much hardship, he rose to become a powerful minister and seemed destined for greatness

But alas, he was born in troubled times, and fate dealt him one misfortune after another.

The ruler was incompetent, while the Eastern Depot wielded unchecked power.

As a censor, he tried to reform the government, but his efforts came to nothing amid the hoofbeats of rebellion.

The emperor told him to flee.

He fled, hiding his identity and lowering himself to become a shadow guard in the Ganzhou camp for five years.

The outside world said he was dead.

He died a strange and inexplicable death, with no remains to be found, leaving one person to search for him for five years.

*

Chen Yinglan thought this was all his life would ever amount to.

Until someone kicked open the gates of the Ganzhou camp.

The visitor wore silver armor, bringing with him the dust of the northern desert. After a long journey through wind and frost, he stood outside the gates.

The commander of the Northern Desert garrison had a mild face, but his words were extremely cutting.

Chen Yinglan panicked when he saw the man outside.

It was his childhood friend, Chen Zihan.

Chen Zihan clasped his hands in greeting. "The Northern Desert garrison is stopping here in Ganzhou for the day. I'm also looking for someone."

Chen Yinglan said nothing, watching him silently as he turned the matter over in his mind.

"Who?"

"Chen Yinglan, former censor of Northern Ming."

He had never imagined that anyone in this world would go so far to find him.

"I'm Xie Chen, a mere shadow guard. That man... wasn't he already dead?"

Chen Zihan raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Oh? Even if he's dead, we should give him a proper burial. Find his bones!"

Chen Yinglan: Is that really necessary?

*

Later, during the winter hunt, Chen Yinglan shot a vulture with his bow.

The moon hung above the treetops, and crows called out in the distance. The man's movements were light yet powerful, but strangely familiar to Chen Zihan.

Chen Zihan's eyes were as bright as the stars, but when he met Chen Yinglan's gaze, they turned distant.

"Are you really called Xie Chen?"

"Commander, you're awfully curious about me. You ask me once every hour." Chen Yinglan looked away and sighed.

Chen Zihan shook his head. "I don't believe you."

*

That night, in the dim lamplight, Chen Yinglan once again dreamed of the rebellion led by the military governor five years ago.

Before setting out for the palace, Chen Zihan had come all the way from the northern desert to protect the emperor.

He returned to the capital and hurried to the Chen residence.

Chen Yinglan was mounting his horse when Chen Zihan called out to him.

"Come back to the northern desert with me."

"I won't."

"If you insist on saving everyone in the imperial palace, you'll die!"

"Then I'll die!"

Then warmth suddenly spread from his wrist.

Chen Yinglan's fingers gripped Chen Zihan's wrist tightly. His brows drew together, his expression pained

"Don't... don't go."

*

"I don't believe you because I regret what happened. I want to take that person back to the northern desert." Chen Zihan pressed a hand to his chest.

Chen Yinglan blinked. "Mm."

For some inexplicable reason, he felt a little guilty.

Well, Chen Yinglan.

Your childhood friend, your nominal "younger brother," has turned around and pretended not to know you!

If he wants to act, then I'll play along.

Chen Zihan: Let's see how long you can keep acting.

Chen Yinglan: Let's see how long you can keep pretending.

[Reading notes]

1. The complete manuscript is ready. I won't abandon this story.

2. It's not really a political intrigue story, despite appearances.

Next story: modern romance, "As the Winter Night Slowly Warms"

Blurb:

[The complete manuscript (about 300,000 Chinese characters) is ready. The story is expected to launch in late April or early May.]

Melancholy, sensitive interior designer × cheerful, sunny oil-painting teacher

Mutual pining | Reunited after a breakup | Road trip | Pure-hearted puppy pursues his wife

"He built himself a city of steel and concrete. She was the wind that slipped through its walls."

In Chen Xiuzhu's journal, tucked between the pages, is a faded sticky note.

It holds a message he wrote at age twenty-eight, when he first met Lin Suchun in a hospital room filled with the smell of disinfectant.

As a young interior designer who has made a name for himself in the industry, he is accustomed to measuring the distance between people with a ruler. Chen Xiuzhu doesn't believe in love at first sight.

He even thinks all relationships are castles in the air, detached from reality.

At the end of 2012, a friend asks him to look after his younger sister. For some inexplicable reason, he buys a few apples to show his concern, like a sudden stroke of warm color on a gray-white blueprint.

"Hello, Lin Suchun. Your brother has to go to the northwest for a survey, so I'll be looking after you for a while." The pen pierces the sticky note, as if it were piercing his long-silent heart.

Just as he is about to leave, he hears the rustle of fabric from beneath the blankets.

"Sir?" The girl's voice is gentle, as if she has only just awakened after surgery. Her eyelashes flutter in the morning light. "Who are you?"

As his vision clears, Chen Xiuzhu sees the girl standing before him.

Her long, ink-black hair falls over her shoulders. Her eyes are like moonlight, bright and clear, pure and radiant.

She smiles at Chen Xiuzhu, and dimples bloom on her cheeks.

Holding up the sticky note, Lin Suchun looks up and asks, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Chen Xiuzhu?"

He lets out a quiet gasp, then lowers his gaze to his toes.

It takes a long while before Chen Xiuzhu finally parts his lips. "I am."

An indescribable flutter spreads through his heart.

Could this be love at first sight?

Chen Xiuzhu doesn't even dare to imagine it.

From then on, he is trapped in a strange yet warm affection, glimpsing a ray of light.

As the winter night slowly warms.

*

Because of a work reassignment, the feelings that were just beginning to take root

follow in his footsteps to Taiwan, gradually settling deep in his heart.

His life seems to return to the way it was before he met Lin Suchun: work, then home, with no one else ever likely to come into his life.

In his spare time, alone, he walks the long coastline of Kenting, captures the clouds drifting over Taipei 101 with a wide-angle lens, then rides his scooter through the morning light on Yangmingshan, stirring up the glittering waves along the Tamsui coast.

Then, after returning from Taiwan, one autumn night he takes a relative's child to an art studio for painting lessons.

Chen Xiuzhu stands behind a screen, just about to leave

"Go get your unfinished painting from last lesson out of the storeroom first!"

That voice is more familiar than any other.

He stops, gripping the straps of his backpack.

He listens quietly as the footsteps approach the screen.

If they ever meet again, he tells himself, he has to be brave. Braver than before.

But now Chen Xiuzhu is a coward, doing the exact opposite.

*

He decides to leave.

She happens to walk around the screen.

Lin Suchun stares at his back, struck by a sense of familiarity she can't explain.

Chen Xiuzhu's heart races like a wild horse as he silently broods.

The moment he lowers his eyes and turns back, he sees her ankle boots standing not far away.

"Sir?"

Lin Suchun takes a step closer, noticing his eyes.

By now, the world has changed beyond recognition.

They both know

that they cannot pretend they are strangers, but they also cannot deny how familiar they feel to each other.

After a long silence, Chen Xiuzhu finally speaks, his voice hoarse and bitter. "How have you been recovering?"

Lin Suchun smiles faintly. "I'm completely recovered."

What role should he take on when he faces Lin Suchun again?

A friend of Lin Qingyuan?

An uncle to the child of a relative?

Or an ex-boyfriend

*

Later, they walk together through the mist atop Victoria Peak, wander amid the bustle of Central, and gaze at the New Year's fireworks over Victoria Harbour.

Eventually, after many twists and turns, they return to Beijing.

The roads they have traveled are as long and winding as their love.

Years later, Lin Suchun asks him, "Chen Xiuzhu, what do you love most about me?"

Chen Xiuzhu says, "Lin Suchun, that's too big a question. I want to spend my whole life answering it."

[Reading notes]

1. Told from the hero's perspective, with a detailed account of the days when they get back together.

2. Inspired by Stefanie Sun's "As the Winter Night Slowly Warms."

3. The complete manuscript is ready!

4. One-on-one romance, both leads are sexually inexperienced, happy ending!

Theme: Strive toward a better life