The General’s Little Nemesis

After returning to the capital victorious one day, Ling Xiao was dragged by a friend to a dance house. At his first sight of Yu Sheng, he sneered coldly, “What kind of man powders and paints his face? Have you no sense of propriety?” But Yu Sheng’s breathtaking dance left him dazed, and he didn’t even notice the wine cup slipping from his hand and crashing to the floor. Soon, war broke out again at the border, and Ling Xiao returned to the battlefield. Yet late at night, he kept thinking of that graceful figure, light as a startled swan. Though the general had humiliated him to his face, Yu Sheng couldn’t forget the flash of admiration in his eyes. When the barbarian cavalry breached the border city, Ling Xiao was seriously wounded and went into hiding in the capital, where Yu Sheng quietly rescued him. As the general recovered, he discovered that the performer was not only skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but also cared deeply about the fate of the nation. His old prejudice turned to admiration, and admiration to love. The proud general began showing up every day with flowers, waiting by the back entrance of the stage, all for the chance to make his beloved smile. He would spend a fortune for one song, and give up an empire to protect one person. The battle-hardened general finally bent to a performer, while the red-robed gentleman gave his heart to a hero.