Crown Prince Jin of Qi × Huo Xin, a Song captive
In the eleventh year of the Xuancheng era, the realm was divided into four. The King of Song was weak and ineffectual, the King of Cheng tyrannical and debauched, and Dai was poor and remote. Only Qi had a young, fierce general with ambitions that reached far and wide.
Crown Prince Jin of Qi conquered Yongzhou. Her father and brothers were killed, her people massacred, and Huo Xin captured. From that day on, she and the Helian clan were sworn enemies. She vowed they would fight to the death!
But under Helian Jin, even death was beyond her reach.
…
That day, with flames raging across the sky, he lazily ordered, "Take her back to camp and cook her."
Another day, as she teetered on the brink of death, he said with perfect calm in his eyes, "Abandon her."
Then came the day when his face was no longer wild with arrogance, but his eyes were full of anguish. "Kill me, and then you must stop hating me." She gripped her dagger and drove it at him with all her strength. Rather than hate, his eyes held affection. "I will pay for it with my life."
On the day she gave birth, Cheng's armies lay in ambush around Shizhou. Helian Jin risked everything to enter the city, and amid their love and hatred, she chose him in the end.
But when Huo Xin had utterly betrayed her father and brothers, cast aside loyalty and honor, and vowed to grow old with her child, Cheng and Qi were on the brink of a decisive battle. The moment Ziyuan was beheaded, she broke with Helian Jin once more.
[Huo Xin, daughter of a renowned Song general. She has no peerless beauty, only an unyielding, resilient spirit.
Helian Jin, Crown Prince of Qi. He has the foundations laid by the late king and the support of his siblings. With his power firmly established, he is destined to unite all under heaven.
Xie Yuan, the least remarkable of Cheng's princes. He killed his father, lost his mother, and was torn apart by his own family… The cruelest blade in the world, every cut driven into his own heart.]
