On the day Xiao Che, the Great Jing war god, returned to the capital after quelling a border rebellion, he came face-to-face with the most painful sight of his life at the victory banquet in the palace. Shen Jinghong, the female general who had fought alongside him at Yanmen Pass and pledged herself to him beneath a red plum blossom, now wore the brilliant red ceremonial robes of the crown princess and leaned against the Crown Prince, Zhao Heng. The woman who had once wielded the “Jinghong Sword” to help him fight through enemy ranks now stood beneath the glow of candlelight, her phoenix hairpin gleaming, and looked right through him.
The court was roiling with hidden currents. The Crown Prince feared Xiao Che’s military power and used the lives of the entire Shen clan to force Shen Jinghong into the Eastern Palace as his “informant.” Xiao Che commanded thirty thousand iron cavalry, yet dared not act rashly. He could protect Great Jing’s borders, but not the woman he loved, whose heart was held captive by imperial power. Old wounds reopened at the palace banquet, anonymous warning letters arrived in the dead of night, and the grain supply case became a test of life and death. Behind their masks as “lord and subject” and “enemies,” the two concealed countless moments of longing and restraint, even as they faced each other with blades drawn.
When the Crown Prince’s plot to rebel came to light, Shen Jinghong carried the evidence and took a fatal sword strike meant for Xiao Che. The moment blood stained her crown princess robes, every pretense shattered. Protect her family, or go to the one she loves? Uphold the rules between ruler and subject, or shatter the shackles of imperial power? The struggle between the war god and the crown princess was never about who would prevail in a game of political intrigue. It was a profound love, wagering their lives on the future. When the dust settled, he wanted no empire. He wanted only to stand with her once more at Yanmen Pass and spend the rest of their lives beneath the same stars and moon.
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