Three years ago, Gu Zhiyi cut herself to feed Lu Xiuyuan medicine and accompanied him into exile, helping him win back the position of Crown Prince.
Three years later, she catches him in bed with her elder sister, Gu Shiqing, on a rainy night.
She burns the hairpin that marked their love, hears him say, “You’re the only wife in my heart,” then smiles and accepts the arrangement that would have her serve as a second wife in the family. She turns away and summons her hidden guards to stage her death.
But she unexpectedly walks into the Grand Prince’s decade-long plan.
He wears a gentle smile as he says, “If my third brother’s wife wants to work with me, she’ll have to let me test her sincerity first.”
Behind the scenes, however, he suppresses the rumors and methodically crushes Lu Xiuyuan’s path to the throne.
On the day she fakes her death and escapes, she watches Lu Xiuyuan weep over his “dead wife,” only to be trapped by the Grand Prince in the shadows of the city tower.
His eyes churn with an obsession as vast as the sea: “Gu Zhiyi, when you burned that hairpin and severed our ties, did you know I nearly slaughtered everyone in the Crown Prince’s residence?”
She abandons the game and tries to leave, but he drops his disguise and presses the imperial seal into her palm. “I’ll take responsibility for the freedom you want, but this time, you’re not leaving me behind.”
