Concealing My Edge in the Snow

Everyone says Shen Zhaoye, heir to the Yan Gu Prince's estate, is the biggest good-for-nothing in the capital.

Three years ago, the prince kicked him out of the manor. After gambling away his pants, he begged for food on the streets and became the Northern Frontier's biggest joke.

Three years later, with heavy snow sealing the passes, he returned in a tattered fox-fur coat, crunching across the snow.

A coffin blocked the manor gates. An imperial envoy arrived with an edict to take his little sister to the capital as a hostage. His father lay unconscious with a grave illness, the Northern Granary's army provisions had been stolen, a traitor was hiding inside the manor, the border troops were starving, and the Canglang Court was sharpening its blades beyond the pass.

Everyone was waiting for the manor to fall, and for its good-for-nothing heir to kneel and beg for mercy.

No one knew...

That in those three years, he had traveled the martial world, tasted countless herbs, and mastered the art of detecting poison and keeping people alive, a skill that could bring the dead back to life.

No one knew...

That he had clues to an old case hidden in his sleeve, could track people by listening to the wind and snow, and had walked every inch of the ten-thousand-mile Northern Frontier.

He dismantled a poisoned hairpin, examined the Guishan clasp, and set fire to a grain transport cart.

He opened the Cangfeng Pavilion, took command of the tiger tally, and uncovered irrefutable evidence of treason from old, damaged records.

From a dissolute good-for-nothing everyone mocked to the young lord of the Northern Frontier, respected by the border troops;

from a coffin outside the manor gates to a case reopened before the emperor in the capital.

He purged the traitors, secured the army's provisions, and drove back the invaders, all for one reason:

The Northern Frontier is the nation's gateway, and beyond it lie thousands upon thousands of miles of homeland. The Yan Gu Army guards the border, and with it the people of the realm.

Shen Zhaoye grinned around a blade of grass:

"Whoever dares invade our border will be killed, no matter how far they flee. Want to lay a hand on the Yan Gu Prince's estate? Ask the Tingxue Register in my hands, and the million border troops beyond the pass, if they'll let you."

After pretending to be a wastrel for three years, this time he can defend the nation's gateway and clean up the imperial court. He will be true to both his country and his family.