A Survival Guide to the Heavenly General’s Estate

Everyone in Chang’an knows that General Xiao Ce is an ice block that never warms up. On the battlefield, he makes decisions as sharp as a blade; at court, he is always expressionless. Everyone in his household walks softly, afraid to take a step too heavily. And in his heart, he has always kept a girl he has searched for over ten years. Then an imperial decree of marriage sends Shen Qingshu, eldest daughter of the Shen family, the nation’s richest merchant family and owner of a silk shop, to his side. Rumor has it that Miss Shen is as gentle as the waters of Jiangnan, yet can revive a dying business with just a few words. Under her management, the Shen family’s silk shop has grown more prosperous by the day! On their wedding day, Xiao Ce looks at the woman standing demurely before him and coldly says, “We’ll each do our own part and stay out of each other’s way.” Shen Qingshu curtsies, her smile gentle. “Rest assured, General. I understand.” At first, everyone in the General’s residence waits to see how this merchant’s daughter will make a humiliating exit. After all, the general’s household has strict rules, and the general himself is as cold as ice. But gradually, they discover that Miss Shen not only keeps the household running smoothly, but quietly uses her own business to help make up the shortfall in the imperial treasury. She can calculate every last coin in the account books, and she dares to stand in front of Xiao Ce with her skirts gathered when he is attacked, her gaze as sharp as a blade. Watching the woman by lamplight, checking the accounts with ink smudges on her fingertips, Xiao Ce feels for the first time that something seems to be quietly warming the coldness of his home. He thinks she only wants a quiet, stable life, unaware that she has already added him to her “survival manual.” She thinks their marriage is nothing but an exchange of benefits, until one late night she catches him looking at her with a hint of tenderness he has not even noticed in himself.