Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan - Book 8 - Chapter 4 – Earthly Saber Song Zhi

“Guokuo, Guoguo, ci… ciguo cake, fragrant…”

“Brother, after Qiu’er finishes eating this delicious, golden pancake fruit, can you tell Qiu’er another story?”

“Brother, Xia’er has signed up for the singing competition, will you teach Xia’er a song?”

“Brother, can you dance folk dances? Chun’er wants to learn…”

Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, and the butterfly waved its wings gently, changing the wheel of life in suffering, and also changing the sky of Shengyu.

- Description from novelbuddy

The newly rebirthed Ye Jian doesn’t need love! What she wants is to stand high up above other people and to look down on them in disdain!

In order to marry a good husband, Liu Yuru had been a model lady for 15 years; but on the eve of her engagement, she was forced to marry Gu Jiusi, a well-known playboy from Yangzhou.

To marry such a person was to ruin one’s life.

Especially because after marriage, she learned that this person was also forced to marry her.

Liu Yuru was heartbroken, and after locking herself in the room for three days, she came to a realization.

Marrying such a dandy, why should she remain a perfect young lady?

So on the third day of marriage, the famously gentle lady shook her hands, carried a knife, and used all her courage to go to the brothel.

To the drunken Gu Jiusi, she said –

Get up!

After that, Gu Jiusi’s life was full of ups and downs.

Whether he was a miserable dandy or a great official, this woman stood beside him.

She supported him with her weak and delicate body, and told him, “get up.”

So even if he was cut to pieces, he would struggle from the mud, grit his teeth, carry her on his back, and walk through this life.

For the first 15 years of Liu Yuru’s life, she thought she was living only to find a good man.

It wasn’t until she met Gu Jiusi that she understood that a good man would help you realize that you live only for yourself.

— May this body of flesh and blood shield her from the wind and rain, protect her dress from dust, and protect her temples from frost.

- Description from Novelupdates

Book I: Lost ThingsTristan Abrascal is a thief, one of many making their living under the perpetual twilight of the greatest city in all of Vesper. Quick wit and a contract with a capricious goddess have always kept him one step ahead, until one night he crosses a line by accident that burns all the bridges he had left. But not all is lost, as his mentor offers a way out of peril that turns out to be more than a simple escape.It is also an opportunity to get even with the infanzones, the nobles he’s lived under all his life, and it so happens that Tristan has a full ledger’s worth of scores to settle with them.Lady Angharad Tredegar has fled halfway across the world, leaving behind a ruin of a life: her family butchered by a ruthless enemy, their estate torched and their nobility revoked. Yet no matter how far she flees the blades of assassins follow, and she finds herself growing desperate for any protection. She has one relative left to call on, her estranged uncle, but she finds that the safety he offers comes at a cost.Angharad has sworn revenge, however, and her honour will allow for no compromise. She will do what she must to survive so that one day bloody vengeance can be visited upon her enemies.The paths of the two take them to the doorstep of the Watch, but for desperate souls like them enrolment is a lost cause. They will have to do it the hard way instead, by surviving the trials on the isle known as the Dominion of Lost Things.Where every year many go, and few return.Book II: Good TreasonsThe trials of the Dominion are over.The four survivors have become students of Scholomance, enrolling together as a cabal, yet even on those infamous grounds they soon learn none are beyond the reach of their pasts.Angharad Tredegar is returned to a semblance of the world she left behind, but finds her honor sorely tested by bargains offered - every bit as tempting as in the stories and even deadlier.Tristan Abrascal needs answers. Mysterious enemies keep trying to abduct him, his classroom does not exist and he’s now had several conversations with dead people. Worst of all, his carrots keep dying.Maryam Khaimov is going mad, which would worry her less if it were happening on schedule. More frightening yet is the possibility that she is not, and there truly is someone else going around wearing her face.Song Ren must forge the others into a functional unit, all the while fending off enemies on all sides: rival cabals, vengeful countrymen and the deluge of implacable foes her companions simply cannot seem to stop attracting.Failure is not an option, for Song must bring back honor to her family’s name whatever the cost: it is the only way to keep their disgrace from literally eating them all alive.And as the four chase shadows in Scholomance, in the distance looms the greater test awaiting them in the Asphodel Rectorate. Asphodel is a faded power, the rotten carcass of what it once was, but under that rot looms darker things - of which monsters might just be the least dangerous.Besides, is treason really such an evil when you have the best of reasons for it?