Cui Yansheng first saw Ling Muxue on the road to the main courtyard of the Prince of Dingbei's residence.
The girl in the red dress was radiant, her brows and eyes frosty, her presence cold and distant.
She was beautiful, a rare beauty in this world, dazzling as a celestial maiden from the heavens. But Cui Yansheng didn't like her.
He thought she was hopelessly foolish. She could have enjoyed a perfectly good life, yet she insisted on wading into this filthy, disgusting mess.
He gave her a cold glance and took no further interest in her affairs.
The first time his opinion of Ling Muxue changed was when a maid in the residence tearfully complained that her monthly wages had been docked. Ling Muxue gave her the only fifty silver coins she had.
He was behind the rockery at the time, and thought the girl was so foolish she was adorable.
His opinion of Ling Muxue improved a little, but not much.
Then one day, he was punished by being made to kneel in the ancestral hall. She braved the wind and snow to come see him, carrying a little bell to hypnotize him. Things didn't go smoothly. He didn't expose her, but pretended to lose control and knocked the girl down, smashing the bell in her hand.
Its clear ring sounded through the silent night. He thought the girl would give him a beating, but instead she hugged him and coaxed him to eat some candy.
At that moment, a tiny seed was planted in the young man's heart.
Not long after, the Lantern Festival arrived. The girl wanted to leave the residence, so she claimed they should go together to nurture their feelings.
Beneath the lanterns drifting across the sky, he asked her, “What did you wish for?”
The girl replied, “May A Yan live to be a hundred.”
He knew she was lying, yet he couldn't help falling for her.
Then, at the Lantern Festival the following year, she handed him over to enemy spies.
Only then did he realize she had never loved him. From beginning to end, the only one in her heart was her deeply poisoned white moonlight.
Hates evil with a passion, saintly heroine × indecisive, saintly hero
