When We Meet, It Won't Be Too Late

Shen Huai had been frail and sickly since childhood. The doctors had even pronounced sentence on her, saying she would not survive the winter.

She acted as if she were taking it lightly, but in her heart, she bore a burden heavier than a mountain.

She still wanted to live.

The day Lu Junyue came to break off their engagement, she calmly accepted, saying only that they would be strangers from then on.

How could she have known that the returned betrothal token would unexpectedly restore her vitality? Everything she had once wanted to do was no longer just idle talk on paper. At last, she could stand firmly on her own two feet.

Before she could enjoy her good fortune, disaster followed. Her mother died suddenly, and her father was detained in the palace. She had no choice but to uphold the General's household.

The palace sent an official to investigate the case, but it was none other than Lu Junyue, the man once bound to her by a marriage agreement.

-

Lu Junyue bore a deep hatred for the nation and schemed day and night, hoping to pit one tiger against another and entomb the emperor on the golden throne within the palace walls.

He stirred up storms in Fengjing, making the world his game board and plotting to claim everything.

Shen Huai was originally just a pawn to be discarded in his game.

He had not expected her to catch him by the tail, follow the clues, uncover his secrets, and force him into an alliance.

He had no idea that his not-yet-wed bride was also a wolf in sheep's clothing, playing the pig to eat the tiger.

One was frail and confined to her bed, the other renowned throughout the world for his gentleness.

They schemed against each other and put on a performance together, until they exposed each other's identities and laid their schemes and mutual exploitation bare. Love grew deformed in the soil of conspiracy, while clever people struggled frantically between reason and emotion.

Both leads are devoted only to each other, HE, political intrigue, the writing is exactly as described, every supporting character gets their moment in the spotlight, the plot-to-romance ratio is seven to three, no writing advice, please.

This story starts slow and then speeds up. It is set in a fictional era, so please don't nitpick historical details.

May you enjoy the story and find good fortune and happiness.

Blurb for The Tide in the Pages

In the sweltering summer of 2018, a strange person named Wumu barged into Chen Mian's life.

Everyone else said she brought bad luck, but Wumu leaned close. "Can we be friends?"

She bristled. "Stay away from me. I'll bring you bad luck."

Later on...

She spent an entire class angry at him for refusing to read her diary.

Because she didn't know how to make friends, she decided to start by "letting him read her diary."

The sound of rain made her restless, but when she got his call, she ran barefoot to the window at once.

Chen Mian thought she was a block of ice that could never melt, until Wumu took her hand and placed in her palm the little blue cat he'd found, soaked through just like her.

"Chen Mian, you're not a monster."

"You're my new friend."

Reader's guide

★ First person

★ Diary, unrequited love becomes mutual

★ A self-loathing heroine with dissociative identity disorder x a healing, straightforward little ray of sunshine

★ A gentle, slow-burn style, focused on psychology and atmosphere, with a bittersweet sweetness.

◎ Slow burn. Very, very slow, about as slow as reading one diary entry a day.

◎ It picks up after seven or eight chapters. The story is told only from the heroine's perspective.

The writing is exactly as described. No writing advice, please. May you enjoy the story and find good fortune and happiness.

Theme: Make the world our game board, and hunt the mountains and rivers together.