Guardian of the Pass, Though I'm Only a Sixteen-Year-Old Girl

My name is Shen Zhaoniang. I’m sixteen, and I guard Jiayu Pass. Don’t laugh. I know what you’re thinking: shouldn’t a pass guard be a hulking, muscle-bound man? But my father’s legs are broken, my brother died in battle, and I’m the only one left on the military household register who can still breathe. Other people guard the pass with swords. I guard it with… embroidery. I stitch military banners for the garrison general’s residence, purses for passing foreign merchants, and knee pads for the old soldiers stationed at the watchtowers. And somewhere along the way, my stitching uncovered the secrets of the pass. That down-on-his-luck scholar, Mr. Chen, says I should learn to read. The Western Region merchant Saimaiti says I should learn accounting. And the Qiang boy Asang says someone beyond the pass wants to meet me. Fine. I’ll guard the pass, solve a case along the way, fall in love, and protect the final gate of the Great Wall stretching ten thousand miles. Beneath Jiayu Pass, beside the Nine-Eyed Spring, a story about a girl and a mighty fortress.