At the moment the car crash shattered her body, Su Yunwan thought of the cold draft that swept in when her mother shut the door, of the four words “It’s time to grow up” on her father’s letter, and of every night in her twenty-six years when she had swallowed her tears alone.
There was no life flashing before her eyes. Only an endless, bone-deep cold.
Then a cold, mechanical voice rang out: [Binding the “Heart of Myriad Worlds” emotional energy collection System. Objective: Make Imperial General Shen Yichen experience an extreme surge of “love” for you. Failure will result in the dissipation of your soul.]
She transmigrated. She became a dowdy logistics technician aboard an Imperial warship: an orphan, malnourished, and covered in old scars. The man she had to “win over,” Shen Yichen, had sculpted, unyielding features, eyes as unfathomable as an abyss, and a heart sealed behind a thousand years of ice.
His first impression of her was minus ten: “suspicious,” “insubordinate,” “abnormal skills.” He electrocuted her in the interrogation room, scrutinized her in solitary confinement, and watched her in every corner.
“Shen Yichen, if being your stand-in would make your life a little easier, then let me be one for a while.” She looked into his eyes and spoke each word carefully. “But remember, a stand-in is a person too. She can hurt, she can feel cold, she can have nightmares at night, and she can hope someone remembers her name: Su Yunwan, not Ruo Wan.”
When the iceberg finally broke, what surged forth was not salvation.
It was two badly wounded people, neither of whom trusted anyone, groping through the darkness and trying to take each other’s hands.
[He was the Empire’s sharpest sword, but his heart died on a rainy night ten years ago.]