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CooLWJ Library Original fiction inspired by poetry

Stories in poetry

Follow a line of poetry into a story.

A light by the ferry, an unsent letter, and moonlight on ordinary lives.
Take the time for a cup of tea and open a story of everyday life.

Browse the shelves 118 works waiting to be read

THE COLLECTION

On the shelves 118

Choose a book and let its story unfold.

A Lotus Boat Crosses at Night

Ancient Chinese–Style MysteryComplete

A Lotus Boat Crosses at Night

After the autumn rain, Yu Cheng follows the sound of clothes being washed into a bamboo grove, hoping an illicit ferrying case will secure his position at the county office, only for the injured woman hiding in a basket to bite him first. The small boat deep among the lotus leaves asks no questions about where people come from, and the old woman will not readily trust his official badge. He remembers a petition dismissed as a family matter, then sees the child beside the boat, whose head someone is holding down to keep the child from speaking.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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New Branches of Red Love Beans

Romance in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

New Branches of Red Love Beans

Gu Xun has waited ten years, but Qin Ran brings back just one red bean; the sacks filling the boat behind her contain nothing but white bean seeds. He repaired the old house long ago and even decided which room she should use to store the seeds; she points to the eastern wing, saying that seeds cannot tolerate smoke and must not be too close to the stove. Her letters mentioned renting farmland and hiring people, but his replies always said only: We will discuss it after we marry.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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A High Tower toward Dusk

Adventure in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

A High Tower toward Dusk

A-Jian replaces the new nails with scrap half an inch shorter, setting aside half a bag to sell so he can redeem the robe he lost at the gambling table. The river keeps rising, and his master says only that they will settle the matter once the top floor has been dismantled. Before sunset, A-Jian sees another surge of water crossing the mountain pass and rushing toward the back of the town. He must get the warning to the townspeople before dark, while the half-inch he saved on the old ladder waits for someone to step on it.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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A Basket of Blossoms

Social Life in an Ancient SettingComplete

A Basket of Blossoms

After a night of wind and rain, most of the rose petals have fallen, and the flower money Zhu Tao needs to repay her debts looks set to vanish too. The merchant will buy the remaining fragrant petals for only twenty percent of the price and urges her to sign over the next three years’ flowers as well. She guards the sweet-pastry recipe her grandmother passed down to only one daughter in each generation, when the voice of her old rival Jiang Rong comes over the wall: with wedding pastries still in demand, how could no one want flowers? The Jiang family’s old steamer still lies in the ditch.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Moonlight at the Old Well

Ancient Chinese–Style MysteryComplete

Moonlight at the Old Well

After twelve years keeping an inn, Chen Yan hears a guest name his hometown for the first time and nearly waives the room charge altogether. Two more people arrive soon afterward, each naming Baijing Town—yet that town burned to empty ground the year its people fled. Moonlight whitens the guest hall as the three speak of the same old well. One says he has a family genealogy; another remembers only a patch of winter shadow.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Even Chrysanthemums Bow Their Heads

A Tale of Marvels in an Ancient SettingComplete

Even Chrysanthemums Bow Their Heads

Han Yan has spent his life painting chrysanthemums that refuse to bow; now he must paint them bending in birthday tribute to secure his detained granddaughter’s release. The new prefectural authorities demand the painting before the Double Ninth Festival, but the branches beneath his brush keep turning upward out of habit. On the tenth day, a vegetable seller brings a packet of earth containing three chrysanthemum seeds and a scrap of cotton cloth bearing the words: “东堤水涨，莫等我。”—“The water is rising at the eastern embankment. Do not wait for me.” Between his painting table and the city gate, the old man suddenly no longer knows which way to go first.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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An Orange Lamp upon the Blade

Ancient Chinese–Style MysteryComplete

An Orange Lamp upon the Blade

Less than a day after leaving his martial school, Zhong Que takes a blade to his right arm. His withdrawal papers hidden in his sleeve, an orange shop by the ferry is his only place to rest. Its owner, A Cheng, urges him to stay the night, yet the movement of her wrist as she peels an orange reminds him of another kind of blade work. At the third watch, frost covers the stone bridge. The light inside suddenly goes out, and someone outside calls him junior brother. The orange still lies beside his hand.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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The Sheng’s Reeds Know Me

Social Life in an Ancient SettingComplete

The Sheng’s Reeds Know Me

For eight years, Meng Heng has stopped whenever she reaches the third section of the old tune. Her listeners sigh over her hard fate, then pay to hear her next time. What the banquet hall bought was her late husband’s “final work” and the gray clothes she wears; little by little, she herself has grown afraid to smile onstage. But A Zhi, a boy who repairs sheng mouth organs, says her fingering does not quite suit the instrument in her hands. Meng Heng impatiently tries to send him away, yet he squats beside the pond, blowing a reed leaf until it sounds like a sick duck.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Mountains and Rivers on Two Panels

Strange Tales in a Historical SettingComplete

Mountains and Rivers on Two Panels

After fleeing disaster, Lu Wei scrapes a living painting fans. At a secondhand stall, he finds two screens depicting the old capital, still holding the fragrant spring and clear autumn of his memory. Wine spills onto the spring scene, a bronze bell suddenly rings, and a performer on the paper beckons to him. Back beneath his lamp, he spreads out a map of his lost homeland, only to find a familiar bridge missing. Deep within the autumn screen stands someone whose back resembles his younger brother’s, yet who will not turn around.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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First Clear Skies Beyond the Nested Gates

Social Life in an Ancient SettingComplete

First Clear Skies Beyond the Nested Gates

Cheng Qi has kept the curtains on all four sides lowered for an entire spring, telling every visitor that she is gravely ill. She has yet to put behind her the poem mocked at last year’s gathering when a new work bearing her name begins circulating outside—a satire aimed at her old friend Liang Su. Business at the bookshop grows quieter by the day. Cheng Qi lays out paper to clear things up, but after writing “断非我作” (This is certainly not my work), her brush suddenly stops.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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A Homecoming to Frosty Horns

War Fiction in a Historical SettingComplete

A Homecoming to Frosty Horns

On receiving his papers to return home, Cao An first sniffs his army boots, afraid of bringing twelve years of the border town’s smell back to overwhelm his granddaughter. His replacement, He Xiaoman, thinks only of signal fires and will not even cover his ears properly. The two brave the first snow to climb the northern ridge. The beacon fire has not yet cooled, but the soldier due to relieve the watch is already half an hour late, and faint mule bells sound from the valley below.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Inscriptions on the Old City’s Bricks

Social Life in an Ancient SettingComplete

Inscriptions on the Old City’s Bricks

Lu Qi is an expert at carving imperial reign titles. Of thirty-six “imperial bricks,” only one remains unsold because he carved its characters upside down. A new job dismantling a palace wall arrives, but his apprentice Dongsheng keeps crouching beside the bricks, studying the tiny names of people worth no money. An antiques dealer presses him to assemble a wall of imperial traces from the Six Dynasties, with payment enough to build the new house his wife has wanted for years. Yet a clay pellet that drops from a cracked brick makes Dongsheng refuse to bring his hammer down any faster.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Stories and poems lead back to one another.Find inspiration in the poetry collection

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