"Gu Xiangxun, ask me what I want."
"I want peace in the world, and I want you to be safe,"
——
In the cold spring of that year, Song Yuran was rescued from deserters in Nanwu.
The man was wearing a golden robe and a fierce horse, and he was killing decisively. His movements were so fast that Song Yuran didn't even see his eyes clearly.
She was only sixteen years old that year, and felt her heartbeat for the first time.
She shouted towards the retreating figure: "Hero, you must give yourself to me for saving your life!"
The only answer to her was the dust kicked up by the horse's hooves.
*
In the early years of Yongtai, snow fell in Yujing, and Queen Song Yuran crashed and died in front of the Qinzheng Hall.
She found her life-long savior to force the palace to rebel for her, and led troops to besiege the city. The all-powerful regent Gu Xiangxun entered the palace with a bloody sword.
He buried her bones in the heavy snow.
Song Yuran didn't know until her death that the spring she had been searching for all her life was right beside her.
He said: "I'm sorry, I'm late."
*
Civil servants were martyred, Confucian scholars were martyred, and Gu Xiangxun was alone, walking alone in the heavy snow, despite the verbal and written criticism from the whole world. Song Yuran thought that the snow in his heart must have been falling for a long time.
What she wouldn't know is that it was a twenty-year-old snow, and the clouds and mist cleared the moment she arrived.
*
Female General × Regent
