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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.

The Willow Takes Root on Its Own

Romance in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

The Willow Takes Root on Its Own

Cheng Xiang returns with twenty taels of silver, hoping to buy back their old house in the south of the city and give his wife a secure home. Xu Heng first tells him to move his luggage: beneath it lie the willow saplings she has grown into a livelihood during five years without word from him. Her husband thinks a few branches can simply be sold off, but she has a contract to deliver three hundred saplings. Before they have even agreed where to live, the spring floods arrive early.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Listening to Rain Beneath a Low Canopy

Social Life in an Ancient SettingComplete

Listening to Rain Beneath a Low Canopy

The new bridge is finished, and everyone says travel will be easier now. Yet Granny Yao still rolls up her trousers and wades through the water to deliver tofu. Unable to persuade her, Huixing goes to help at her tofu workshop. Even after ruining a bucket of soybeans, he cannot get her to take a single step onto the bridge. Huixing recognizes every character on the stone inscription, but Granny Yao seems to be looking at a blank space. The spring rains are coming, and the villagers plan to pull out the wooden posts at the old ferry landing.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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A Faint Light at the Cold Food Festival

Ancient Chinese–Style MysteryComplete

A Faint Light at the Cold Food Festival

At dusk during the Cold Food Festival, Yu Xiaolou carries a palace lantern with a vermilion shade along the long street where all fires have been extinguished, calculating whether his reward will pay for another search for his younger sister. Inside the third candle, a bone needle wound with red thread rattles softly, and the crooked writing on the scrap of cloth beside it is instantly familiar. The rules for delivering the new fire allow no mistake in the destination, and the official in charge is already urging the procession forward; the candle concealing the needle is destined for the Marquis of Wu’an’s residence.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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A Heart Within a Spring Robe

Romance in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

A Heart Within a Spring Robe

Xue Cai accepts the commission to make a wedding outfit for an old love, not out of wounded pride, but because the fee will cover the debt owed by Xue Cai’s mother. Yet the bride, Wen Xing, comes every night to try the same cuff. The calluses between her thumb and forefinger and the horse reins inside her clothes do not match the delicate measurements sent by the Liang family. As the wedding approaches, Wen Xing suddenly asks where the tailoring shop’s rear window leads; Xue Cai grips the scissors, not daring to answer at once.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Apricot Blossom Ferry

Romance in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

Apricot Blossom Ferry

The apricot blossoms have all fallen, and Meng Shuang still leaves a place at the bow for Lu Zhi, who failed to keep their appointment twelve years ago. For the past three years, another old woman has often hired her boat and stayed until dusk, saying her daughter knows the apricot tree at the crossing. A phoenix hairpin with a broken wing slips into view from a sleeve, while the hot fish soup usually shared with the old woman cools between them.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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The Third Watch at Sea

Adventure in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

The Third Watch at Sea

After seventeen years in exile, Rong Shuo finally gains permission to return north, only to hear the hull crack as the boat nears shore. His medicine chest holds his late wife’s ashes and unsent letters home; the constable carries government silver at his waist. A boy who stowed away urges them to let go quickly. A second wave bears down before any shore lights appear. The broken plank left among the waves is too narrow: when all three cling to it, it sinks.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Return of Spring

Social Life in an Ancient SettingComplete

Return of Spring

Xu Qingchi has painted Jiangnan for seven years without ever crossing the river outside his door. A buyer from the northern city commissions Return of Spring, asking for a red bridge, willow-lined banks, and a homeland that will never fade; yet Yueya, a girl seeking work washing brushes, recognizes a color on the bridge railing that should not be there. She asks only how a boat could pass through water so shallow, and suddenly both the old patterns his father left him and the deposit he has already accepted become problems.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Apricot Blossoms Ask of Your Return

Ancient Chinese–Style MysteryComplete

Apricot Blossoms Ask of Your Return

The Wu residence has stood empty for seven years, yet every Cold Food Festival, its swing ropes creak deep into the night. A Liao takes a well-paid job guarding the gate. Following the sound, she meets Xing’er, an apricot-blossom seller who refuses to believe her mother left of her own accord all those years ago. A lead weight on an old skirt leads the two girls back to a long-ago funeral. Just then, the owner’s daughter, who married far away, pushes open the door.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Between Plum Blossoms and Snow

Ancient Chinese–Style MysteryComplete

Between Plum Blossoms and Snow

On a snowy night, a moneylender dies in the ditch outside the garden. A white petal on his sleeve directs suspicion toward the young master of the plum garden. Lin Yan moves it beside a charcoal brazier, but the change she observes differs from everyone’s confident assertions. Her senior fellow disciple has already written the examination report for her and urges her to sign. Holding the paper, she remembers the person who stood in the doorway to shield her ten years ago, who never completed an examination report for her.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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A Tree Awaiting Spring

A Tale of Marvels in an Ancient SettingComplete

A Tree Awaiting Spring

Nineteen-year-old An Huai takes over his father’s post as a gardener. His first assignment is to coax the imperial garden’s early plum blossoms into bloom within ten days. The charcoal fire burns fiercely, yet the roots crumble at a touch. The steward asks only when the flowers will open; the fine silk his father sends seems to offer another way out. As the banquet draws closer, one word on the flower inspection report still awaits his brush.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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Lingering Fragrance of Plum-Blossom Ashes

Ancient Chinese–Style WuxiaComplete

Lingering Fragrance of Plum-Blossom Ashes

After being expelled from her mountain school, Xie Wei sets up a shelter beside a broken bridge to practice medicine, guarding a document that can clear her name. On a rainy night, she lights her old incense for a guest with an arrow wound, only to draw the sound of horse bells that have sought her for two years. The wounded man is the very person who signed her expulsion order. Her sachet still rests against her waist. As the water outside the bridge arch slowly rises, she remembers the ship for the Eastern Sea that she should have boarded long ago.

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · 1 chapter

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The Ferryman of Peach Creek

Adventure in an Imagined Ancient WorldComplete

The Ferryman of Peach Creek

At Peach Creek, no one inspects salt or cloth, and no customs duties are collected. Liu Wenzhou almost believes he has found a trade route to see him through old age. At night, however, Sang Ning carries two sacks of stones aboard his boat to test whether it can carry her and her two children. He says he carries only goods, not people; the village head says only that she is ill. When he reaches the creek’s mouth again, the wooden barrier has already been lowered, and this cheap waterway begins to demand its price.

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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