The Prince Will Have No One but Him

In the third year of Yuanqing in the Great Yan dynasty, Shen Yanqing, eldest son of the Shen family, knelt outside the Regent’s residence to beg for an audience with Xiao Heng, hoping to save his father, who had been imprisoned for a crime. On that snowy night, Xiao Heng agreed to help, leaving him with just one thing to remember: “Remember what you said today.”

Three months later, an imperial edict of marriage arrived at the Shen residence: Regent Xiao Heng wanted Shen Yanqing as his primary consort. The court was in an uproar, because Shen Yanqing was a man. Xiao Heng was unyielding: “Who I marry is none of your concern.”

Only on their wedding night did Shen Yanqing learn that Xiao Heng had waited for him for three years. They had first met at a palace banquet three years earlier, when Xiao Heng found the jade pendant he had lost. From then on, Xiao Heng could never forget him. But war kept him busy, and he had to wait again and again, until the Shen family fell into trouble and he finally saw the man kneeling before him.

After they married, the Empress Dowager pressured Xiao Heng to take concubines. He replied, “I want no one but him.” When the frontier was in peril, Xiao Heng made a promise before setting out to war: “I’ll come back alive.” But the news that arrived was an urgent report, carried at full speed, declaring him dead in battle.

Shen Yanqing refused to believe it. He went alone, traveling a thousand miles to the frontier, where he found Xiao Heng unconscious and gravely wounded. He kept vigil day and night, until Xiao Heng finally opened his eyes. His first words were, “You said you were going to remarry?”

After surviving life and death, Xiao Heng resigned as regent and withdrew to the mountains with Shen Yanqing. From then on, the clash of blades in the court gave way to flowers blooming and falling in their little courtyard.

This is a story about waiting and making one’s way to the person one loves.

It is the story of how, on that snowy night, he knelt and said, “Whatever Your Highness wants,” while the man standing before him thought, “I want only you.”

It is a story of three years of searching, a thousand miles traveled to save him, and a lifetime spent together.

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