Ark (Published Novel) - Vol 1 Chapter 0: Prologue

"There was a time in my life where I struggled to breathe. A time where I felt suffocated everyday, but then I met you."

-Turning the gears of fate.

A drop of ink can penetrate the walls, even the walls you took too long to build.

After losing her first love due to a traffic accident, Ibuki Sumire transfers to Tokyo. She wanted to escape, to run away from everything that happened. To start over in a place that didn't have him. But a series of clues lead her to investigating the case behind the accident.

In that place she learns about the masks people wear. The masks people wear to disgui se their feelings. Sometimes you have to look past what you see on the surface.

There she meets him, the person who helps her move forward. But Sumire quickly learns how alike they are. His cold personality is different than the kindness she is used to. However, he is the only one who understands her feelings.

It keeps going around in circles, like a drop of paint. Round and round - an endless stream of pain and lies. But, that stream ended the moment she laid her eyes on his paintings.

Such rich and vibrant colors, it felt like his emotions exploded. Yet, in the corner of his studio, she found it. The real him, a sakura painting of two people walking hand in hand.

A gentle and sweet feeling, something she has never felt before.

[Commissioned Cover by: Vatarison]

Prince Heixinggen from the Swabia branch of the Hohenzollern family sees the turmoil in Europe and the impending war, deciding it's better not to stay.He embarks on land acquisition in East Africa, focusing on immigration and development, laying the foundation with agriculture, taking one step at a time, and leveraging the crisis to achieve industrialization.

At the beginning, he said: “Little concubine from Jiangning County, what an insult to status, I won’t marry!”

After seeing it, he tsk-tsk: “It’s so weak, it’s too weak, I don’t want it!”

When she came to the door alone with a marriage certificate, he stood leaning against the door and smiled subduedly, “Come and let me marry you? But I don’t want to marry young!”

Knowing that she came to divorce the engagement, his complexion was completely dark, and he wanted to kill someone gloomyly, “Who gave you the courage to withdraw the young master’s engagement?”

…

Su Rong felt that Princess Duanhua might be blind. This person is so pampered, how could it be worth her to die and live for him?

If I had known, when she saw him for the first time, she threw the divorce letter in his face.

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The hibiscus pillow is delicate and springy, and the hall is full of flowers drunk without knowing it. ——Su Rong

A young man in fresh clothes and angry horse walks, and his whole life is a mistake. ——Zhou Gu

Your wish is my wish, I wish to know you early, to protect you with brocade red in the jade hall, break through obstacles, cut thorns, hands are not stained with blood, clean, and I am the gentle and soft little girl I first saw.

Your wish is my wish, I wish I had known you earlier, when you were bright and bright, I was careful not to approach, frightened the sparrows, and prayed to turn into the moon in the sky, projected into your arms, to accompany you to see the flowers in spring and the snow in winter, and Changan every year.

- Description from novelbuddy

It was a time where demons roamed the earth and chaos reigned. The story took place in Luoyang, the legendary capital of the times. During the night, one could find people holding on to their food with dear lives as they faced off against stray dogs, people with weapons in hand vowing to fight against Fate to their very last breath. There was bloodshed everywhere as some died meaningless deaths, while the strong tyrannized the weak and the truth was frequently hidden. Some of the citizens had completely lost their mind, while some died on their travels. Most importantly, the words of a certain youth caused much panic in the human world. It was a time of little warmth as nights in the capital were frequently accompanied by gusts of wind and rain, and it would be covered with snow during winter. Such were the days…

- Description from Novelupdates