A Brocade Quilt to Warm the Winter Chill

She died from the poisoned wine her half-sister gave her, her fiancé's betrayal, and the remorse of learning that her grandmother had died because of her. When Shen Nuanqin opens her eyes again, she is back on her wedding day, her bridal sedan chair carrying her to the residence of Pei Jin, the prince known as the “Living King of Hell.” In her previous life, she fled the wedding in front of everyone and became a laughingstock. This time, she lifts the curtain and walks toward the man afflicted by a strange poison. “Your Highness, I won't call off this marriage.” She turns around, tears up her engagement to the scoundrel, and enters the prince's residence wearing the jade bangle her grandmother gave her. She grows vegetables and sells medicine using spirit spring water, wins over the servants, and takes in a speechless child named Pei Xiaotuan. Pei Jin, cold as ice, lost his mother at seven and spent ten years as a hostage. His heart has turned to ash, but the lamp she lights every night slowly warms it again.

Before her grandmother dies, she clasps Shen Nuanqin's hand. “Remember, you are a brocade quilt. Warm yourself first, then warm the one you love.”

On the seventh day after her grandmother's death, her half-sister comes to cause trouble. Shen Nuanqin opens the wooden box her grandmother left behind. There is no gold or silver inside, only a letter: “Whoever makes my granddaughter shed even one tear, I'll make him shed a bowl of blood, even from beyond the grave.” In that moment, she finally understands: true warmth doesn't mean hiding beneath someone's wings to escape the cold. It means lighting your own fire in the depths of winter, then using it to illuminate the way for the people you love.

Later, when Pei Jin is besieged at Lonely Mountain, she rushes to the battlefield. Pei Xiaotuan speaks for the first time before his grandmother's memorial tablet. Years later, on a snowy night, she and Pei Jin sit facing each other, with their grown children gathered around them. Outside, wind and snow blanket the world. Inside, the room is as warm as spring.

Her grandmother's lantern still sways in the wind. Pei Jin goes to light it every year, for her, for them, and for everyone who has ever been warmed by her. May everyone walking through a cold night find a warm quilt of their own!