Return to the Southern Mountains

My new novel, After Being Deceived in Body and Heart by a Dark and Scheming Minister, is now underway. Welcome to read!

A lazy, quick-witted country doctor vs. a sickly man who's sharp-minded and full of schemes

1.

Zhu Xi is a country doctor living a quiet life in the mountains. She spends her days basking in the sun, occasionally saving a few people and collecting consultation fees to make life a little more comfortable. She's quite content.

She'd be even happier if the sickly man in her courtyard, with his red lips and pearly teeth and looks to rival Pan An, would disappear from sight. He doesn't even look ill.

Unfortunately, Zhu Xi is destined to have anything but a peaceful life. She seems to be a terrible match for this sickly man, as if their birth charts clash and their elements are at odds.

The little courtyard where Zhu Xi had lived for years was demolished into rubble overnight because of him, and someone even held a knife to her throat to threaten her.

In return, Zhu Xi very casually pointed the people who had come for revenge in a certain direction...

On the run through the jianghu, the two constantly clashed. They never quite drew their blades on each other, but both were determined to kill the other with words.

Unfortunately, the sickly man had the advantage of being good at martial arts, so Zhu Xi had no choice but to swallow her anger. Her last shred of a doctor's moral conscience wouldn't let her curse him to hurry up and die...

2.

Shen Yan is a wanderer of the jianghu. After roaming the world for years, he considers himself gentle and courteous, and has never made an enemy. Yet somehow he offended some powerful immortal and was poisoned, leaving him at risk of dying without even knowing why.

Shen Yan had found a place in the wilderness to be buried and planned to end his life there. Then he met a shabby, unscrupulous country doctor with no medical ethics. To keep someone like her from disturbing his peace after death, he decided to rid the world of her.

Shen Yan hates liars more than anything. Unfortunately, Zhu Xi keeps testing his limits. Though he is "gentle" by nature, a voice in his heart has told him countless times to slit her throat with a single stroke and be done with it.

But the hand holding the knife seems to have a mind of its own. He never once manages to follow through. Instead, he uses the blade he treasures like his own life to dig up medicinal herbs for her in the mountains...

Time and again, he puts himself in danger for Zhu Xi. When she calls him stupid, he finds her voice as sweet as heavenly music. He even digs up herbs from half the mountain to coax her into not being angry.

At last, Shen Yan looks down at Zhu Xi in his arms. She had desperately followed him over the cliff and is now unconscious, covered in blood. The heartbeat he hadn't felt in a long time seems to start up again in his chest.

He thinks he finally understands why he's been trying so hard to win Zhu Xi over and act obedient around her.

3.

Zhu Xi notices that things have been much quieter lately. The annoying sickly man seems to have been possessed. Not only has he stopped arguing with her, but he even seems to let her have her way at every turn...

Zhu Xi calls him dumber than a pig, and he just smiles and agrees without talking back.

Whatever Zhu Xi says, he goes along with it, never arguing or snapping at her.

He doesn't complain that Zhu Xi wastes time climbing the mountain to gather herbs. He even takes the initiative to go with her, bringing food and following along to help, with a keen eye for what she needs.

The sickly man's warm, gentle smile makes Zhu Xi feel a chill: Has he figured out that she put laxatives in his food, and is he biding his time before he gets back at her?

My new novel, After Being Deceived in Body and Heart by a Dark and Scheming Minister, is now underway.

Hai Yunshu has been feeling restless these past few days.

She overheard her imperial brother and the Great General discussing plans to marry her off to the Northern Barbarians as a political bride. She spent ten years as a hostage in the north, so she knows exactly what kind of place it is.

Hai Yunshu thinks that even if she has to die, she will die in Yongzhao City. She will never set foot in the north again.

So she makes a deal with the disgraced official she kidnapped: I'll help you return to the court as an official, and you must make sure I can stay in Yongzhao City forever.

But the old foxes at court are each more cunning than the last, and Hai Yunshu can barely read or write. She's nowhere near clever enough to outmaneuver them. Luckily, the disgraced official proves capable enough on his own, so she doesn't have to lift a finger.

Afraid that the disgraced official might switch sides at the last minute, Hai Yunshu, feeling guilty about not helping much, decides to try another approach. Since she's going to get married anyway, she might as well find a handsome young man in the capital and marry him first. That way she won't have to go north and live on wind and sand.

Wen Xinglian is a cold and indifferent man. He had barely had time to get used to wearing an official's hat before his family dragged him down with them, and he was thrown in prison and exiled.

Everyone says he's incredibly lucky to have caught the Princess Royal's eye. A convict like him actually has a chance to return to office. Only he knows that Hai Yunshu is nothing like the innocent, naive person she shows to others. In truth, she is eccentric, obsessive, and crazy.

Wen Xinglian needs her help to return to court as an official, so he has no choice but to put up with everything she does to him. He only has to wait until the day he holds great power, when he can finally escape this madwoman.

But at some point, he realizes that he has become more and more obedient to Hai Yunshu, and that his gaze keeps following her without his noticing:

The young master of the Zhao family passes by, and she compliments his looks.

Today she spent the whole day with the Empress, choosing a husband for herself, and came back a full incense stick later than expected.

Wen Xinglian's expression grows darker and darker, and the string in his heart grows tighter and tighter.

Until one day, Hai Yunshu unlocks the golden chain around his ankle and tells him that she prefers men from Jiangnan. She has requested permission to return to her fief, and he is free.

Wen Xinglian clearly hears the string in his heart snap in two.

1v1, SC, HE

The blurb was screenshotted on December 2, 2025.

Theme: Live well