She is a jade fallen from the clouds; he is a sword risen from the mud.
One bloody night during the Cold Food Festival consumed a century of glory enjoyed by the Shen clan of Lanling. Nine-year-old Shen Yuening, the jewel of a noble house, witnessed her loved ones die and their vermilion mansion collapse. From a life surrounded by affection, she plunged into a living hell. All that remained to sustain her through the chaos, living under an assumed name and drifting like duckweed, was a bloodstained white jade pendant at her throat and her wet nurse’s dying words: “Stay alive! Avenge us!”
Ten years in hiding, her bones tempered by wind and frost. The noble girl of old becomes “A Ning,” an embroiderer in a border town, struggling to survive in the mud while guarding the little dignity she has left and her boundless hatred. Yet fate’s whirlpool sweeps her into a battle-hardened military camp, the domain of Xiao Heng, a lowborn general who fought his way to power through a sea of blades and blood.
Xiao Heng was born to humble circumstances. Through courage and brilliant military achievements, he rose among the ranks of the generals. Cold as iron, he sees noble houses as decaying barriers, yet he catches something unusual in those clear, resolute eyes, which conceal a stunning beauty. A forced conscription and a life-or-death ordeal bind the two together, though they should have remained worlds apart.
She is a fallen phoenix; he is a lone wolf who guards the nation. He offers her protection, unaware that a blaze of vengeance burns in her heart, strong enough to destroy everything. Beneath his hardened exterior, she glimpses his sincerity, but is horrified to discover that clues to the blood feud point to the very power he serves, and even to his own hazy past...
