On the night of their engagement, an army conscription order tore the lovers apart.
Six months later, the news she received was that he was dead, along with a waist badge bearing the blood-carved character “Live.”
Shen Qinghan, the legitimate daughter of a general's household, tore off her wedding dress and put on men's clothes. Taking her servants with her, she embarked on a thousand-mile journey from the capital to the frontier to find her husband. Along the way, she saw villages where nine out of ten homes lay empty, heard the nighttime cries of widows and orphans, evaded assassins sent by conspirators, and even buried the maid who died shielding her from a blade.
She thought finding him would mean their reunion.
But in a desolate border village, amid the sound of carving wood, the masked, lame carpenter “A Mu,” who had married into a farming family, was none other than her long-lost fiancé, Gu Yunzheng. He had lost his memory, been disfigured, and withdrawn into himself. He did not recognize her, and when she risked her life to protect him, he even closed his eyes and begged for death.
The disastrous defeat at Soulbreaker Valley concealed a shocking conspiracy to collaborate with the enemy and betray the country. One stubborn thousand-mile search, meanwhile, uncovered a power struggle stained with blood at court.
When his memories return amid bloodshed, when the truth emerges through the killings, and when old cases are reopened before the court
What she wants has never been the flawless young heir who was a god of war.
She wants Gu Yunzheng, who is willing to sit beside her amid the ruins, admit that they are both broken, and decide together how to go on living.
