Has the Phoenix Returned to Everlasting Joy?

The most spoiled princess in Chang'an meets the coldest, hardest general on the northern frontier. She loves handsome male companions; he has nothing but a body covered in scars. She sees marriage as a cage; he treats an arranged match like a military order. She thinks she could never love anyone, until she follows him to the northern frontier. Amid the blowing sand and hardtack, in the loneliness of standing guard on the city wall for ten years, and among the bones of three thousand brothers and the names of 437 civilians, she sees another world. After they return to Chang'an, the bloodstained wedding veil he lays before the court is both proof of her innocence and a vow to her. Later, when the Northern Di invade from the south, the princess gives away her entire fortune, and the general fights to the bitter end. This is a story about growing up, and about “trust”: trusting that someone will guard the countless hearths behind you, and trusting that someone will wait for you beneath a jujube tree in Chang'an, ready to welcome you home.

The Phoenix Returns to Changle, Never to Fade: The phoenix is the princess, the empress, the most honored woman in the realm. To return is to come home, to find a place to belong after weathering countless storms. Changle is her title and her fief, and carries the hope of “eternal joy.” Never to fade means the story is not truly over; life goes on even after the ending. The phoenix returns to Changle, the princess goes back to where she belongs, and the lights of Changle Palace will never go out.