Old Dreams

织尔Jiangsu Kuwei Culture Development Co., Ltd. · ChinaNov 2025

3.2

Word count: 27K words
Chapters: 7

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Summary

[A genuinely unwell prime minister's daughter, Wen Huaixi × an equally unwell capital city crown prince, Shen Nanlin]

[Historical romance + premium fiction + revenge + BE + double death + marriage first, love later]

"He liked you from the moment you, covered in wounds, were brought into the palace by the Empress Dowager—from the moment he opened his eyes, saw him, and smiled."

"Watching you slowly, he sank deeper and deeper. He had liked you for a long time—several years longer than you had liked him."

"He thought about marrying you. He wanted to hold you and tell you not to be afraid. He wanted to protect you."

"He wanted you to stay by his side. He wanted to tell you that this world is not only full of evil people—there are many kind and beautiful things waiting for you to see and feel."

"He wanted to take you to find some fairness, to let you smile happily, to keep you from giving up your life."

"But he could not keep you."

Editor's review

Gu Meng is an emotional tragedy that writes against the grain of the "marriage first, love later" framework. Rather than treating the relationship between the prime minister's daughter Wen Huaixi and Crown Prince Shen Nanlin as a sweet-romance formula, it lets two young people, each carrying their own wounds, begin with marriage and walk step by step toward an irreversible ending. What deserves the most attention is the restraint of the narrative perspective: much of the emotion is advanced through narrated summary and deliberate gaps, requiring readers to piece together the two characters' misaligned affection and belated confessions. The revenge plotline supplies external pressure on the romance and ensures that the "double death" ending is not mere sentimentality but carries a sense of inevitability, as if fate itself is driving the characters forward. Best read in one sitting during a quiet block of time; the emotional concentration is high, and it is worth leaving a little time afterward to process. If you prefer light, fully resolved historical romances, this book may leave you with a strong sense of loss; but if you want a love story written with care and unafraid to confront its costs, it deserves a place on your reading list.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy tragic aesthetics and BE endings in historical romance
Readers who can accept a double-death setup and seek emotional impact
Readers interested in marriage-first, misaligned-secret-love themes
Readers who want to finish a complete emotional story in a short length

Not a good fit for

Readers who only want light, sweet, fully resolved stories
Readers sensitive to death endings and intense angst
Readers expecting complex political intrigue as the main plotline

Reading tips

Set aside at least two uninterrupted hours to finish it in one go, so the emotional arc is not broken up
When you reach narrated passages, look back at earlier details and pay attention to the two characters' misaligned psychological timelines
After finishing, write down your understanding of the line "he could not keep you" to help process your reading experience
If the emotional impact is strong, wait a few days before reading other short works by the same author to avoid stacking up consecutive angst

About the publisher

Jiangsu Kuwei Culture Development Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 2014

Jiangsu Kuwei Culture Development Co., Ltd. is a cultural enterprise focused on planning and publishing literature and social science books. Public information is limited, and the available details come mainly from its in-house catalogue. Its publishing areas cover prose and essays, foreign literature, social science classics, mystery and detective fiction, and history books, with attention to reissues and boxed sets of classic works. Representative titles include Wang Zengqi's essay collection Renjian Youwei, Wanwu Youqu, The Little Prince, a boxed set of Western philosophical classics, Mao Dun's classic works, a collection of Yasunari Kawabata's award-winning works, Cai Lan's essays, and the Eddie Flynn courtroom mystery series. Its authors include Chinese and foreign names such as Wang Zengqi, Mao Dun, Yasunari Kawabata, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Plato, and Marcus Aurelius, reflecting a publishing profile that brings together Chinese prose, foreign literature, and philosophical and social science classics.

版权信息
第一章
第二章
第三章
第四章番外知是故人来上
第五章番外知是故人来中
第六章番外知是故人来下

FAQ

Is this book sweet or angsty?

It leans angsty overall and has a BE ending. The story revolves around Wen Huaixi and Shen Nanlin's misaligned affection; there are tender details in the romance, but the ending is not a happy one, so readers should prepare themselves before starting.

Can I read this without having read the author's other works?

Yes. This is a standalone story and does not depend on prior works. It does share the same tragic tone as the author's other short pieces, so reading this one first will give you a clearer sense of what to expect stylistically from the others.

What exactly does "marriage first, love later" mean here?

It means the two characters begin from a marital relationship, but their feelings do not start with love. The story focuses on the process of observing, testing, and missing each other after marriage, rather than on pre-marital romantic buildup.

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About the author

织尔 Author

Zhi Er is an author about whom limited public information is available. To date, nine works can be confirmed under this name, including Chang Ci, After the Cabbage Spirit Descends the Mountain, Xing Zhi Wan, Gu Meng, Wang Yue, Eighty Thousand Springs, My Emperor Setting Is That He Loves Her, and Xu Xu Tu Zhi. Judging from the categories in the database, her writing spans time-travel alternate worlds, otherworldly continents, youth literature, and modern romance, showing a range that moves between historical fantasy and realistic emotional themes. Her titles often carry a classical flavor and a light imaginative touch, as with "Chang Ci," "Wang Yue," and "Eighty Thousand Springs," suggesting a tendency toward emotional atmosphere and character relationships; titles such as "After the Cabbage Spirit Descends the Mountain" and "My Emperor Setting Is That He Loves Her" reveal a lighter, humorous side with playful genre premises. Because her dates of birth and death, nationality, and English name are not recorded, little can be said about her life, and readers must come to know her mainly through her works.