Chang'an's Old Dreams: Frost on the Halberd
The snow of the first year of Tianbao buried the glory of the entire Cui clan of Boling.
Peering through a gap in a coal cart, Cui Qingyan looked back at the bloodstained gates along Zhuque Avenue. Her father, who had once taught her the Book of Songs, and her mother, who had combed her hair, had both become footnotes to the imperial decree accusing the family of treason. As an old servant pushed her out through the back lane and told her to survive, she clutched half of the family's ancestral jade pendant and staggered through the chaos until she did.
For five years in Hedong Circuit, she learned martial arts from an old escort guard. She traded the zither of her boudoir for a long spear, buried the name Cui Qingyan in the dust, and became Su Yan, a warrior capable of escorting merchant caravans through the sandstorms. When the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, she joined the Shuofang Army. From scout to deputy general, she used her spear to burn supplies at Yulin Pass and scout enemy camps in Yunzhong City. The yellow sand roughened her hands and sharpened the light in her eyes: military glory was never what she wanted. She wanted the truth behind the imperial decree that had destroyed her family.
When the account books were laid open before the court and Li Linfu's followers were brought to justice, snow fell over Chang'an once more. Cui Qingyan stood before the ruins of the Cui family estate, frost dusting her armor. Behind her lay the vast realm and her homeland; before her, the heavy weight of old dreams. At last, she had avenged her family, but she was no longer the girl who could sit beneath the flowers and read poetry. This Tang dynasty, caught between golden age and chaos, had forged her into a halberd that could protect both the realm and the past she had fought to preserve. The frost on its blade was all earned honor.
