A Virgin's Dream

叶灵风Aug 2026

3.7

Word count: 8K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

The novel unfolds in the diary form of the protagonist Sha Mei, recording the admiration and fantasies of an eighteen-year-old girl who has never experienced love for the famous writer Tan Hua. The diary details her inner activity while reading Tan Hua's works, her disgust for frivolous men of the world, her hazy understanding of and resistance to love and sex, and her longing to remain pure and innocent—all of it shy and sweet. The novel delicately portrays the romantic fantasies, emotional struggles, and pursuit of purely spiritual love of an educated woman in the Republican era, bearing a distinct romanticist coloring.

Editor's review

Ye Lingfeng enters the inner world of an eighteen-year-old girl through the diary form, rendering admiration, shyness, disgust, and self-protection with delicacy rather than levity. Sha Mei's admiration for the writer Tan Hua is not one-way worship; as she reads, she repeatedly examines her own feelings, longing for spiritual closeness while resisting the sense of offense brought by worldly men—a contradiction that constitutes the tension of the whole piece. The diary form brings the narration close to private whispers, letting readers see how an educated woman of the Republican era groped for the boundaries of feeling between propriety and new ideas. For readers interested in women's writing in modern literature, diary-form fiction, or Republican-era narratives of emotion, this book offers a sample tinged with romanticism. It relies not on plot but on psychological detail, and is suited to slow reading in quiet hours, to savor that shy and sweet self-disclosure.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy diary-form fiction and prefer psychological description
Literature enthusiasts studying women's writing and emotional narrative in the Republican era
General readers interested in romanticist literature and themes of pure love

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plot and fast-paced narrative
Readers impatient with the whispered, private mode of diary-form narration

Reading tips

Read the first few diary entries to grow familiar with Sha Mei's voice and rhythm, then continue in sequence.
Note her reactions to Tan Hua's works alongside her disgust for worldly men, and read the two together to understand her emotional contradiction.
After finishing, revisit key passages to trace her psychological shift from fantasy to self-protection.

版权信息
莎瑂的日记
梦
我的爱
甜蜜的早上
邂逅
转变中
序曲
梦的实现
点顶
昙华君的日记

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story?

From the available material, it is a novel unfolding in the diary form of the protagonist Sha Mei; the specific length is not stated. Diary form is usually composed of multiple linked entries, and it can be read as a continuous psychological journey rather than a story driven by external events.

Is it suitable for middle school students?

The work touches on a young girl's hazy feelings about love and sex; the tone is shy and restrained, but the theme leans toward adult emotional experience. If middle school students read it, it is best done with teacher or parent guidance to understand the Republican-era context and women's psychology, not as popular youth reading.

Is this book similar in style to Ye Lingfeng's other works?

The material presents only the content of this book and offers no comparison with other works. As for this book, it bears a distinct romanticist coloring and focuses on diary-form private whispers and psychological portrayal; readers can judge from this whether it suits their reading preferences.

Comments

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About the author

叶灵风 Author

Ye Lingfeng is an author about whom limited public information is available, and two of his works are currently included in the collection. Judging from the representative works "A Virgin's Dream" and "The Warrior of Love," his writing mainly touches on two genres: social fiction and modern romance, with stories often centered on emotional relationships and the varied conditions of social life, showing the narrative characteristics of popular literature aimed at general readers. Because information such as his dates of birth and death, nationality, and life experiences cannot be verified, a complete picture of his creative output is difficult to sketch. Still, the thematic orientation of the two existing works suggests that Ye Lingfeng was concerned with the interplay between personal emotion and social reality, and skilled at presenting his characters' circumstances through a romantic style. Readers interested in his style may begin with these two works to appreciate his mode of expression in social fiction and romance writing.