Shen Qingtang, the daughter of the prefect of Suzhou, and Xie Jingyuan, the eldest son of Prince Rui, were once like bamboo horses sharing green plums under the eaves. He picked out the wall tiles for her, and she studied ink for him to prepare calligraphy. Unspoken feelings were hidden in the shadows of lotuses beside the inkstone. However, something unexpected happened in Prince Rui's palace, and the prince became the son of a guilty minister. Shen Qingtang also fell from the clouds, but he tied the black iron token he left behind to his body and waited amidst the rumors.
Xie Jingyuan joined the army wearing a broken armor. He started from the blood-stained new army camp, cut his throat to kill the enemy outside Yanmen Pass, and sacrificed his life for the savior in the desperate situation of the glacier. He embroidered his longing for her into the cold light on his spear, and paved his way back with bloody battles - just so that one day, he could earn a heavy imperial crown for his Qingtang as a general of the country.
When he rode alone into the camp and returned with his blood-stained robes, the gentle prince had turned into an iron-blooded general, but he would still take her hand and wipe it carefully when ink drops were splashed on her sleeves; when she was outsmarting an old enemy in the court, he would stand with his sword and protect her with the might of an army. From the green plum blossoms falling on the banks of the Gusu River to the red battle flags in the Beibei War, their stories are filled with the sadness of parting, the trembling of reunion, and the deep love of the years of looking at each other hand in hand in the brocade tent after life and death - he is her returnee who has overcome the flames of war, and she is the sweetheart in the palm of his military life.
