Luoyunchu, the young lady of the Prince of Zhennan’s household, was gentle by nature and renowned for her talent. Inspiration often came to her in dreams, where she painted “Lantern in the Snow,” but she always woke to hazy flames and the smell of blood. The repaired white jade pendant at her waist, a protective charm her father had found for her, sometimes grew faintly warm.
Song Qi’an, who took charge of the Ministry of Justice at just twenty-three, was a brilliant investigator and a cold, taciturn man known throughout the capital as the “Iceberg Minister.” Yet whenever he saw Luoyunchu, a ripple stirred in his eyes, one he couldn’t explain. Her pendant, the solitary lamp in her painting, the way she spoke softly: they all felt like impressions carved into his soul.
In their previous life, he was a young general who died in battle on the border, while she was the legitimate daughter of the prince’s household, holding a lantern on the city wall and waiting for him to return. “If we have another life, let me be the one to find you,” he had said, creating a promise that crossed the boundary of death. Reunited in this life, the jade pendant brought them together, and fragments of memory served as their matchmaker. The Iceberg Minister couldn’t hide his double standards: he refused every gift from anyone else, but the osmanthus cakes she made were on his desk every day. He was impartial and stern in his investigations, yet remembered every gentle reminder she gave him.
Mu Qingqing, the Grand Tutor’s young granddaughter, was always bringing Luoyunchu news of her latest mischief. The Dali Temple assistant minister Xie Jihan was forever following behind her, grumbling while cleaning up her messes every time. Amid the capital’s bustling streets and snowstorms, the two couples turned the unfinished love of their past lives into a sweetness that melted like snow in their palms.
