(The ghosts who want me dead are in the court. Only Ruan Qing has ever truly cared for me.)
Modern writer Ruan Qing wakes in an endless desert and finds herself in the fourteenth year of Fengning, a world that is not her own. There she meets General Lu. Over the next ten years, she is swept into a tangle of love and hate unlike anything she has ever known. The general’s heart turns tender, and from then on, he is intoxicated...
At first, the cold-faced general tries to kill Ruan Qing three times. Later, they wage war on the battlefield, where beauty withers among the dead...
“What does it matter if I live? What is there to fear in death? Ruan Qing will be the only color in Lu Yuan’s eyes.”
“When the general is at peace, the realm is at peace. That means peace in the general’s heart, and peace in Ruan Qing’s, too.”
A book left behind tells of the cold-faced general’s years surviving the hellscape of corpses strewn across the land, and of the heartbreaking love he shared with the woman who came to him against the light...
“The world fears me and worships me, but no one loves me.”
“Even against a million troops, I will charge forward, trading my flesh and blood for peace under heaven.”
“Fourteenth year of Fengning. Sweltering summer. I met Lu Yuan in Dunhuang. Cold-natured and quick-witted, he raised his sword against me three times, intent on killing me...”
“Seventh day after entering Yuecheng. General Lu and Zihuan left with the troops. At midnight, the Japanese pirates entered the city, burning and looting without restraint. The people were slaughtered, and cries of misery filled the land. Lian’er and I fled beyond the city walls and nearly lost our lives, but General Lu saved me in my hour of danger.”
“At first, I thought he was just like that man. Now I see that he is simply Lu Yuan, a general unlike the other one.”
“Young Master Chen Lixi is a marquis. He serves the country and does not live for himself, serving his country and his sovereign. For now, that is all I can say of Lu Yuan.”
