Two young gentry women meet by chance at a nunnery in Yangzhou, where they fall in love at first sight. After they exchange poetry and recognize each other’s literary talents, their emotional bond deepens. They conduct a mock wedding ceremony at the nunnery and hatch a plan to spend the rest of their lives together. Their schemes are stymied by a series of obstacles, but in the end the two women find an unlikely resolution—a ménage-à-trois marriage.The Fragrant Companions ...

Two young gentry women meet by chance at a nunnery in Yangzhou, where they fall in love at first sight. After they exchange poetry and recognize each other’s literary talents, their emotional bond deepens. They conduct a mock wedding ceremony at the nunnery and hatch a plan to spend the rest of their lives together. Their schemes are stymied by a series of obstacles, but in the end the two women find an unlikely resolution—a ménage-à-trois marriage.The Fragrant Companions ...

Author YU LI ( 李昇禹 ), male, Canadian writer, a dashing figure, neither too young nor too old. Main works include: "Love is Not Romantic," "Investing in Love," "A Beautiful Journey," "Love Classes" (about men), "Love Classes" (about women), "A Touch of Fragrance," "My Roaming (from 1999-2002)”, “The Butterfly Veils”,“Solar in My Motherland”, “The Marriage Lessons”, “A Lesson of Happiness”, and is currently working on “A Beautiful Journey” (unabridged version (title change)) and “Emomercial ...

This book, written by experts in the field, is based on the latest research on the analysis and synthesis of switched time-delay systems. It covers the stability, filtering, fault detection and control problems, which are studied using the average dwell time approach. It presents both the continuous-time and discrete-time systems and provides useful insights and methods, as well as practical algorithms that can be considered in other complex systems, such as neuron networks and genetic reg...

Outfoxed?I'm Kira Fairwood, rogue kitsune and couch-surfer extraordinaire. Three months after disowning my pack, I'm still trying to find a way home.Then a way home finds me. All I have to do is follow the advice of a murderer, trespass on an enemy alpha's territory, and nab a stranger who shares my fox heritage.Thom thinks it's a terrible idea, but he puts his not-quite-pack on the line to help anyway. Now, if I fail, I'll drag my new werewolf frie...

From Newbery Honor–winning author Andrea Wang, a new middle grade novel about a Chinese American tween who attends a Boston-based Chinese cultural overnight camp—and the many ways it transforms her.Phoenny Fang plans to have the best summer ever. She’s returning to Summertime Chinese Culture, Wellness, and Enrichment Experience (SCCWEE for short and “Squee” to campers in the know), and this year she’s a senior camper. That means she; her best friend, Lyrica Chu; an...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Advanced Parallel Processing Technologies, APPT 2026, held in Brussels, Belgium, on July 27, 2026.The 36 full papers, 11 Poster Papers and 4 work in- progress papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 135 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Featured Articles; LLM Inference; Serving Systems; LLM Workflows; AI Design Automation; Scalable Comp...

This open access book focuses on the research of advanced structures and anti-seismic in civil engineering. The book features the most cutting-edge research directions and achievements related to civil and structural engineering. Subjects in this book includeEngineering Structure and Seismic ResistanceStructural Mechanics AnalysisComponents and MaterialsStructural Seismic Design3D Printing Concrete.

This book presents a comprehensive assessment of clastic sedimentology and its application to reservoir geology. It covers the theoretical foundations of the topic and its use for scientists as well as professionals in the field. Further, it addresses all aspects of reservoir sedimentology, clastic sequence stratigraphy, sedimentation, reservoir diagenesis and heterogeneity, as well as depositional systems (alluvial, fluvial, lacustrine, delta, sandy coast, neritic, deep-water) in detail.

Amid the turmoil of the Ming-Qing dynastic transition in seventeenth-century China, some intellectuals sought refuge in romantic memories from what they perceived as cataclysmic events. This volume presents two memoirs by famous men of letters, Reminiscences of the Plum Shadows Convent by Mao Xiang (1611–93) and Miscellaneous Records of Plank Bridge by Yu Huai (1616–96), that recall times spent with courtesans. They evoke the courtesan world in the final decades of the Mi...

This book summarizes recent efforts and advances in the roll bonding of metal laminates to reveal the potential mechanism. Based on the comprehensive understanding and our numerous original works, some important issues about the fabrication method, evolution mechanism of bonding interface and reinforcement factors of roll-bonded metal laminates are discussed and emphasized. Furthermore, some prospective viewpoints about the design, fabrication and fracture mechanism of roll-bonded metal la...

This book includes original, peer-reviewed research papers from the 2023 7th Chinese Conference on Swarm Intelligence and Cooperative Control (CCSICC2023), held in Nanjing, China on November 17-19, 2023. The topics covered include but are not limited to: reviews and discussions of swarm intelligence, basic theories on swarm intelligence, swarm communication and networking, swarm perception, awareness and location, swarm decision and planning, cooperative control, cooperative guidance, swar...