Autumn gales billowed sleeves as two figures faced off sword in hand along the hillside.   Neither Xie Wuyan nor Jiang Yuan moved a muscle, stances frozen as still waters while hems rustled violently around them.   By unspoken consent they had agreed on a single decisive stroke to determine victor. Such methods were common…

The horizon lightened as a faint drizzle fell. Wearing a bamboo rain hat, Jiang Kui turned into Chang Le quarter.   She had already informed Xie Wuyan she planned to scale the walls and sneak out today. Xie Wuyan didn’t mind in the slightest that she intended to leave the palace grounds alone, even personally…

Jiang Kui received Zhu Zi’an’s reply on the third day.   She found the letter mixed in with a pile of incoming missives for the Eastern Palace. As always Zhu Zi’an had casually stuffed a sheet of mulberry paper amidst a great wad of correspondence, utterly unconcerned whether she would even spot it.   The…

Xie Wuyan did not know what he had done wrong.   When he awoke, he found the study empty. He was lying amidst a pile of scattered books and scrolls, a sheet of official stationery haphazardly draped over his face. There was also an ink blot smeared onto the tip of his nose.   Coughing,…

“Xie Wuyan!” A clear girl’s voice exploded within the bedchamber. “Get up!”   Xie Wuyan didn’t stir upon the couch.   Jiang Kui huffed irritably. Rising from the bed she swiftly donned a set of exercise gear behind the canopy before striding over to stand by the couch, staring down at him.   To prevent…

Within the thick, heavy mist, Xie Wuyan slept for a long time.   In his dreams lingered endless fog, the fragrance of medicinal herbs, rich sandalwood incense, and the faint, delicate scent of a maiden. He didn’t know someone had allowed him to lean against her for a long time, someone had gruffly dried his…

At dawn, the first light crept over the horizon.   Jiang Kui donned a gauzy outer robe over her white undergarment, cinching her slender waist with a snowy sash. Bare feet leaving the gold brocade bed behind, she slipped soundlessly out the carved window without disturbing anyone.   She wanted to investigate just what Xie…

The day after the grand wedding, at dawn, sunlight streamed in through the carved lattice windows, falling onto the face of the maiden below.   “Young Hero Jiang, time to rise!” the storytelling scholar Liu Qingming called from outside to wake Jiang Kui up.   When Jiang Kui opened her eyes, she found herself lying…

Amidst the stillness, the two confronted each other.   The bead curtain was woven from pearls and the glass bed had jade boxes, tortoiseshell pillows, five colored jade ornaments laid with a mandarin duck quilt of three thousand pieces, festooned with exotic flowers and leaves.   Amidst such extreme opulence, everything dissolved into chaotic fragments…

Cool moonlight flowed in from outside the window, coalescing into a silvery apparition.   Beneath the moon, a beautiful maiden tilted her head as she gazed at the scholar in white. Her eyes were bright, her brows elegant and proud. The hairpin with a red jade ornament in her loosely tied updo glimmered as the…