My Master Wants My Heart

Suying learned to read brine color before she learned to trust people. That skill saved the salt harvest, but it also puts her in the middle of a fight between court power and the coastal families who need her foreign breathing art. The local schools cannot predict her moves, and that makes her dangerous to the wrong side. Lu Yanqiu starts as the woman sent to control her, then turns into the one person who can stand beside her without flinching. Suying wants safety, but she keeps reaching for the one rival who treats her like property and partner at the same time. The first time Yanqiu reads a discarded letter aloud, both women crack open in a carriage that is too small for either of them.