Frost on the Pulse, Scars on the Heart

The Great Jing dynasty is teetering on the brink of collapse. Su Qinghuan, a folk healer, hides a past no one knows about. Her medical skills and secret mastery of poison are both her armor and her prison. Xiao Jinghan, the Defender General, bears the weight of the nation on his shoulders. Beneath his hardened exterior lies a heart of iron and tenderness, but after they save each other from the brink of death, he and Su Qinghuan become inextricably entangled.

He suspects she is a remnant of the former dynasty and tests her at every turn. She resents him as the descendant of her enemies and keeps him at arm's length. Yet love takes root when they least expect it: he takes an assassin's arrow for her, and she brews medicine for him late into the night. But the chasm between their identities, the court's icy web of conspiracies, a rival in love waiting to strike, an obsessive restorationist, and the iron grip of their families repeatedly push them to the brink of love and hatred.

When a healer's heart meets a warrior's mettle, and national enmity collides with a love that runs to the bone, can they break free of fate, or will they become a pair who can only gaze at one another across the tides of history, forever unable to be together?