In the twelfth lunar month of winter, the north wind is like a knife.
Outside the ancestral hall of Zhenguo General Mansion, the snow was ankle deep.
Ice edges hung on the corners of the eaves, like a row of upside-down swords, glowing coldly under the pale moonlight.
The incense burnt in the hall was smoldering, and the green smoke was almost extinguished. Only a wisp of gray was left struggling and twisting in the wind, as if like the person inside, his life was hanging by a thread.
Mu Qinglan knelt on the cold bluestone. Her thin plain skirt had already been soaked in snow water and clung to her legs. The coldness climbed up along her meridians, pricking the old wounds like thousands of needles piercing her heart.
She gritted her teeth, not daring to moan - in this general's palace, even pain was a sin for the weak.
She was the third concubine of the Zhenguo General's Palace. She was once the most dazzling polo star in the capital. She broke the tie at the Royal Polo Tournament with one stroke at the age of thirteen and was known as the "Jade Female General".
