Jade in the Dust: The Young Prince’s Path to Becoming a General

1. Prologue: The Orphan of the Palace Coup

A sudden palace coup erupts in the imperial family. The loyal servant of the seventh prince, Lin Ye, carries the infant out of the palace, but they are ambushed along the way. Gravely wounded, the servant entrusts the child to a peasant couple before dying. From then on, Lin Ye lives under an assumed name and is called “A Ye.”

2. Childhood: A Life in Darkness

When his adoptive parents realize Lin Ye has no powerful family to rely on, they reveal their true nature and treat him as free labor. A Ye grows up hungry and poorly clothed, herding cattle, chopping wood, and doing backbreaking work by day, then sleeping in the woodshed at night. The slightest mistake earns him beatings and scoldings. His only comfort is half of a jade pendant left by the loyal servant, engraved with the character “Lin.”

3. Adolescence: Enduring and Building Strength

Amid hardship, A Ye secretly watches farmers hunt and merchants keep accounts. He teaches himself to read and write, and learns to fight by imitating hunters to defend himself. He grows taciturn but remains strong-willed. At fifteen, after resisting a brutal beating from his adoptive father, he is thrown out. He wanders in search of a living, taking odd jobs and doing backbreaking labor.

4. A Turning Point: The Jade Pendant’s Faint Glow

At eighteen, A Ye is bullied by local thugs at a market. During the fight, the jade pendant engraved with “Lin” falls to the ground. A former imperial guard passing by recognizes its pattern. He had once served alongside the loyal servant who protected A Ye. The guard secretly follows A Ye and, after confirming his identity, tells him of his true origins.