The Tang Blossoms Summon the Crane

He is a cold-hearted border general who considers defending the homeland and keeping the people safe his duty. He believes that worldly feelings and desires only distract soldiers from their mission. But after an accidental embrace on the training grounds, the princess, famed throughout the capital for her beauty, gives him a teasing smile and leans her soft waist against his arm. From that moment on, her vibrant beauty is etched into his mind, haunting him day and night. He suddenly realizes that even a man clad in armor and wielding a weapon is still only human, and cannot resist the allure of a peerless beauty. When she throws herself into his arms, he lowers his guard and willingly gives himself over to her. In private, he secretly hopes that he is someone special to her. But when he sees with his own eyes the man she has treasured in her heart for years, his burning feelings crumble to ash in an instant. With his heart turned to ash, he volunteers to return to the perilous border. He fights desperately on the battlefield, teetering on the edge of death. As he lies dying, clinging to his last breath, the person he most wants to see is still her. By sheer luck, he survives and returns to the capital. His body is ravaged, and he is bedridden, yet she never once comes to tend him at his side. He secretly despairs, believing that he alone has ever been sincere in this entanglement. Only when the truth finally comes to light does he learn that she knelt before the imperial throne and pleaded desperately for him, and sold all her personal possessions to get him out of danger. His silent, lifeless heart begins to beat for her once more.