Huo Heng's Bandit Bride

She was the most celebrated young woman in the capital, famed throughout the land despite her frail health.

Overnight, the entire Xie family was arrested and their property confiscated. She fled to the frontier with her little brother.

On a snowy night, the pursuers were closing in.

Certain she was going to die, she was suddenly hoisted onto a horse by a burly man.

He had a brutish face and calloused hands, and he barked, “Shut up, or the wolves will hear you!”

Only later did she learn his name was Huo Heng, and that he lived up to it: he charged headlong through life and never knew how to turn aside.

Everyone said Huo the Wolf had killed countless people, but only she knew that

this rough man would brave snow and mountains to find a doctor when she fell gravely ill,

be at a loss for what to do when she cried,

and clumsily write her name, practicing it eight hundred times.

He said, “In this life, I recognize only two things: the soldiers under my command and the people at my back.”

Later, he added one more person to that list.

He rode a thousand miles to fight for her, battling his way into the imperial capital.

She plotted and schemed for him, setting the world in motion.

From the frontier to the capital, from the daughter of a condemned minister to the mother of the realm.

He charged through life headlong, and she stayed by his side.

People said, “Huo Heng spent his whole life being bold, but she’s the one who finally brought him to heel.”