Spring Hidden in an Empty Courtyard

Mu Chunshu’s biggest secret in this life is that she knows martial arts. The Great Qi dynasty explicitly forbids women from practicing martial arts. But she is a general’s daughter, with the blood of the battlefield running through her veins. Fortunately, Crown Prince Xiao Yanting was ordered to study at the General’s Residence. He covered for her at every turn and practiced swordsmanship with her beneath the moon. The young man’s fingers brushed the back of her hand as she gripped her sword. “I’ll keep your secret for the rest of my life.” She believed him. Until her father’s old wound flared up again. Only a sacred medicine from an enemy kingdom could save his life. With no other choice, Xiao Yanting married a princess sent as a bride, trading for the medicine and ten years of peace between the two kingdoms. On their wedding night, he personally demoted her from Crown Princess to “Imperial Sister.” For the next three years, everyone said the Crown Prince was heartless. Only his personal eunuch knew that His Highness often spent the night alone in his study, sitting motionless until dawn before an old portrait on his desk. The person in that portrait was her. The princess sent as a bride finally discovered the secret chamber. Seeing walls covered in portraits, a faded sword tassel, and poems filled with the character “Shu,” the woman, consumed by jealousy, laid a poisonous trap to kill Mu Chunshu. At last, all his restraint crumbled. He gripped her hand. “I want the empire, and I want you too.” She once concealed all her brilliance for him, hidden away in the Eastern Palace. Now, he would personally bring that hidden heart back to the very top, before all the people of the realm.