AfflictionEON



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  1. Public Bookmark 11

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    “Jiefu,” she said abruptly, without taking her eyes off the cage, but waiting for Xie Zheng’s welcoming hum, “if he likes me one day, can I keep him?”

    His hands paused in their whittling.

    “No.”

    “Why not?” she asked stubbornly. Xie Zheng almost expected it, really.

    But what could he tell her, honestly? How could he explain without destroying the delicate structure of lies upon lies that he had been building here?

    “Because he is a gyrfalcon, not a pet,” he answered in the end, going with something simple and hoping she would drop it, his hands moving again but losing their finesse.

    But, of course, Changning trampled all over that perfect plan.

    She huffed. “You don’t know. Maybe he wants a family. Maybe he wants to stay.”

    “He does not want to stay,” he said evenly, carefully not looking at his falcon lying all cozy in his nest of a cage to avoid feeling like a liar. Before he could stop himself, he added more quietly, “He wants to fly home.”

    Xie Zheng swallowed, trying to focus on his almost-done chopstick, while his thoughts and emotions were racing.

    Why did it suddenly feel like that they weren’t just talking about the bird anymore?

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    03 May 2026

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  2. Public Bookmark 43

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    Xie Zheng cannot live without Fan Changyu so he comes to get her back. She is missing on the battlefield.

    Angst with a happy ending.

    Thanks to academyofbrokenhearts for the idea and beta reading

    This has a companion story now, He is Lost, Return

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    03 May 2026

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  3. Public Bookmark 28

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    Lord Liu thought he'd seen it all; his life was as peaceful as a cat napping in the sun, or at least as peaceful as life in the capital could be. But he never imagined he'd be caught in a situation this wild. Now he found himself entangled in a perplexing predicament, completely unaware of what was unfolding around him.

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    05 May 2026

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  4. Public Bookmark 14

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    *Chapter 2 is up, rating updated from Mature to Explicit*

    “Sometimes, in the coldest hour,” The Marquis of Wu’an brought Chang Yu’s hand to his lips, softly pressing a reassuring kiss to dispel the cold in her skin. “Endurance carries life faithfully through inky darkness. Just like the plum blossom that blooms in bone-chilling cold,”

    “Small, luminous,” He quietly said, eyes locked with hers as he took in the moonlit picture of beauty in front of him. “And quietly defiant.”

    Language:
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    04 May 2026

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  5. Public Bookmark 19

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    “Jiefu, can you teach me?”

    The question came out of the blue, clear and earnest, as though Changning had been holding it in for days and could no longer keep it to herself.

    Xie Zheng did not look up immediately – the tip of his brush hovered above the paper, suspended in surprise he could barely conceal, before he completed the final stroke with deliberate precision.

    Only then did he set the brush aside and lift his gaze.

    Changning sat beside him at the low table, her expression calm, that was undermined by the way she kept shifting in her seat. Ink smudged the tip of her nose – when she had acquired it, he had absolutely no idea – and her eyes shone with unmistakable anticipation.

    “Teach you?” he echoed, voice sounding strange even to his own ears.

    “Yes,” she said, nodding vigorously. “I want to write like you. Your words look so beautiful.”

    Xie Zheng regarded her for a moment, his expression unreadable.

    Series
    Language:
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    Words:
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    03 May 2026