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A Jaded Blossom

A Woman Without a Mask

At 28, Clara Hayes has mastered the art of wearing masks. To her colleagues, she’s the perpetually cheerful graphic designer who never misses a deadline. To her overbearing mother, she’s the dutiful daughter hiding her anxiety behind polished smiles. To the world, she’s a woman who “has it all together”—except she’s crumbling inside. Clara’s life unravels during a corporate presentation where a panic attack strips her façade raw. Humiliated and exhausted, she flees to a quiet coastal town, renting a cottage owned by an eccentric, free-spirited potter named Marisol. There, Clara stumbles upon a dusty journal in the attic, its pages filled with haunting sketches and anonymous confessions from a woman who once lived there decades earlier. The entries mirror Clara’s own suffocating duality: “I paint myself in colors the world approves of, but my soul is a grayscale.” As Clara tentatively befriends Marisol and a reclusive widower, Eli, who runs the town’s crumbling bookstore, she begins confronting the lies she’s told herself for years. Through their unconventional guidance—and the journal’s cryptic wisdom—she starts shedding her masks one by one. But vulnerability comes at a cost: her corporate career teeters, her mother’s disapproval intensifies, and a buried trauma from her teenage years resurfaces, threatening to drown her newfound courage. When Clara’s raw, unfiltered artwork—created in secret—goes viral, she faces a choice: return to the safety of her old illusions or step into the terrifying freedom of living unapologetically. But the journal hides a final secret, linking Clara’s journey to the cottage’s mysterious past, forcing her to question whether true authenticity is a rebellion… or a homecoming.
Daoist5CDTxH · 1.7K Views

Ascension of the Jade Lotus

In the revered halls of the Soaring Dragon Sect, strength defines worth. For Lin Feng, years of effort have yielded only disappointment. Branded as the sect’s weakest disciple, he is given a final chance—achieve the impossible within a year or be cast out forever. His punishment? Exile to Cloudhaven Outpost, a place where failures go to be forgotten. Yet fate has other plans. A storm, a cave, and a forgotten symbol carved into stone change everything. A jade lotus, pulsing with an ancient rhythm, awakens something deep within him. When he emerges, he is no longer the same. His qi flows differently, his body hums with an unfamiliar energy, and whispers of knowledge press against the edges of his mind—secrets no one ever taught him. At Cloudhaven, he meets Elder Lian, a master whose knowledge of cultivation is unlike anything he has encountered. Under her relentless training, his stagnation shatters, his growth accelerating at an unnatural pace. But skill alone is not enough to escape the weight of his past. A friend from his former life arrives with a warning, a message wrapped in quiet urgency, a name spoken in hushed tones—Ren Zhao. There are forces beyond the sect’s politics, forces that have slumbered for centuries but have never ceased their search. And Lin Feng, in his ignorance, may have lit a beacon for them. The past is not as distant as history claims, and bloodlines are not as forgotten as the victors would wish. As visitors approach Cloudhaven, the walls around Lin Feng begin to close. The journey ahead is uncertain, but one thing is clear: power is never given, only taken.
The_Mighty_Twin · 4.4K Views
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