For three years, she helped Gu Shaoheng pacify the southern frontier, crush the rebels, and establish a network of secret agents.
On the day their efforts bore fruit, Gu Shaoheng brought the Grand Tutor’s daughter and bestowed on her the title of “concubine.”
“You have a scar on your hand. You’re not fit to be the principal wife.”
She neither cried nor made a scene. She threw the battle formations she’d spent three years drawing into a brazier and left without looking back.
Then she married the man Gu Shaoheng feared most: Huo Minglou, the cold-faced god of war of the northern frontier.
Her ten-mile procession of betrothal gifts filled the streets. Right in front of Gu Shaoheng, Huo Minglou said,
“I’m grateful to General Gu for being so blind and letting a woman of such unmatched talent into my manor.”
Later, he would play with her hair and wrap his arms around her waist.
On snowy nights, he would drape a fur cloak around her and caress the scar on her wrist.
But she hadn’t come here for romance.
When she was mocked at the spring banquet, her analysis of a military campaign left a three-dynasty veteran official speechless.
When someone framed her, she retaliated with three ledgers that shook half the court.
She went to the northern battlefield herself, and for the first time, her name was entered into the record of merit before all the officials.
Her name was Lin Wanyin. From now on, she would be no one’s shadow.
