The frontier's wind and sand buried Shen Yan's childhood, and concealed the past he dared not touch. A raid by "bandits" left him all alone. Adopted by a mad old man and raised in a ruined temple, he believed he would spend his life alongside the borderlands. He had no idea that the threads of fate had already bound him tightly to the royal capital, thousands of miles away.
He is the orphan secretly protected by the General Who Guards the Nation, the last living ember of the Su family bloodline, and a pawn coveted by every faction in a game of power. When the mad old man's scheme is exposed and General Zhao's blood stains the royal capital, Shen Yan finally sees the truth: the supposed peace on the frontier is nothing but an illusion cast by the turmoil in the capital. The half of a jade pendant in his palm holds not only his mother's love, but also a secret powerful enough to topple the dynasty.
Deep within the royal palace, the Third Prince Xiao Che has never taken his eyes off the frontier. His mother's "illness and death" and the destruction of the Su family are two thorns in his heart. Beneath his easygoing disguise, he has laid a vast web to uncover the truth. His meeting with Shen Yan is both coincidence and destiny. In a world of shifting plots and treacherous rivalries, two men burdened by the past become each other's only light.
When the frontier dust rises, it is the ashes of home; in the palace shadows, the blood still runs hot. When Xiao Che's life ends in the instant he helps Shen Yan break through the encirclement, and the late emperor's secret edict, the Su family's military tally, and the royal family's forbidden secrets are unearthed one by one, Shen Yan finally understands: the names buried in the frontier dust, the obsessions carved into their bones, were never chains
After reading four chapters, I can only say that there is a reason why no one reads it.