The Female Leader

[A beginner's writing exercise. Buying the full book to read seems to cost about five yuan. This is the author's first full-length novel anywhere, and it still has its shortcomings, so I can hardly ask for support. But I must thank everyone for reading this far. Once it's complete, I'll start revising it, with occasional typo fixes and polishing.]

[Female lead's perspective / career-focused]

Shen Shuyun, an abandoned girl from Tong County, was lovingly raised from childhood by Master Shen, a down-on-his-luck top scholar. She learned poetry and books and mastered the art of writing, but when her adoptive father suddenly died, she was forced to fend for herself.

With no one to rely on, she would become her own support.

With no way forward, she would carve out a path with her own hands.

So she came alone to the vast capital of Linjing. With little money, she could afford only a notorious shop that everyone avoided, said to be haunted. Relying on her skill at geomancy and quick thinking, she used the principles of “suppress, transform, guide, and enliven” to turn a layout riddled with baleful energy into a thriving space where fortune lay hidden within misfortune, and opened a small bookshop.

Before the money could start rolling in, her neighbor, the newly titled top scholar Liang Zhiyuan, who disliked her as much as she disliked him, got there first. Then came the storms of the capital and the cutthroat competition of the trade...

Some said she had caused her adoptive father's death, then her fiance's.

Some said her carving skills were too poor to make a living.

Some said she ignored the rules of business and did as she pleased.

Some said she had delusions of grandeur and wanted to set her sights on a man...

But she refused to believe that women could only accept their fate, admit defeat, endure others' judgments, and let the world trample them.

She would make a place for herself in the capital, and love with abandon.

She would carve books, and take charge of the book trade!

Later, people would say she wielded her hairpin like a knife, carving the capital's every change into history.

They would say she rose above all her rivals and became the greatest woman in the book trade.

They would say she saved precious cultural treasures, served the Southern Dynasty, and left her name in the annals of books.

Those who had once looked down on her could never hope to catch up.

Those who had abandoned her could only regret it.

A woman set out to build a career, and in the end...

The whole world lay in her hands!

[Romance blurb]

“My lord, are you here to read books or buy people?”

“Oh, sorry, that came out wrong. Are you here to look at people or buy books?”

Shen Shuyun, the young owner of a bookshop in the Southern Dynasty, had seen her family bookshop collapse, her father die, and her home disappear. She had hoped to come to the big city of Linjing, see the world, and live quietly as a purveyor of culture, occasionally doing some block carving. Instead, she unexpectedly became neighbors with the handsome and irritating top scholar, Liang Zhiyuan.

At first, he wore a look of disdain.

“Can you keep accounts?” “I know a little.”

“Can you copy-print from woodblocks?” “Well enough.”

“Can you warm a bed?” ...

Shen Shuyun instantly slams down her ledger in a fury. “Perhaps Lord Liang would like to ask whether I can tear down a house?”

Later, the haughty female lead pins the fugitive male lead between the bookshelves.

“Do you know how much silver I spent buying this haunted shop back then? That included the fool next door, too.”

Theme: Neither resolve nor courage can be lacking.