Can This Frail Thing Even Survive the Winter?

[Historical intrigue + two powerful leads finding salvation + fated bond + marriage before love (crossed out), battle before love]

He is a decisive, ruthless warrior prince, cold and merciless in public, yet his ears turn red around one particular person when no one is watching.

He is a frail, aloof strategist who can plan for every eventuality and outwit the whole world, yet somehow failed to anticipate his own heart.

At their first meeting, he said, “Can this sickly man even survive the winter?”

Later, he ran through torrential rain for fifteen days, searching for someone who had left without saying goodbye.

“Shen Lanting, if you dare to die, I’ll go with you.”

“Xiao Yu, I’ll be with you again in my next life.”

He gave his blood to keep him alive, and the other risked his life to take an arrow for him.

From mutual dislike to pledging their lives to each other, from political battles at court to a little courtyard in Jiangnan.

Decades later, the crabapple blossoms bloomed year after year, and the fish in their tank were replaced time and again.

He asked, “After all these years, haven’t you seen enough?”

He said, “Not yet.”

He gave him jade hairpins for a lifetime, from black hair to white.

And he blushed for a lifetime, from the day they first met until the very end.

[Mutual secret crushes × together through life and death × fighting from the royal court to the bedroom]

[Confession while drunk in Chapter 44; pretending to be asleep and hearing “I love you” in Chapter 55. Brace yourself for the big moments!]