She was the most insignificant palace maid in the Laundry Bureau, but her face happened to bear a striking resemblance to the princess. The Empress Dowager used her younger brother’s life to force her into a doomed political marriage in the princess’s place.
On the day she left the passes, snow swept across the land. Escorting her was Gu Linyuan, the Great Zhou’s youngest Protector General. Rumor had it that he was cold-blooded and ruthless, a battlefield demon whose name struck terror into the people of Beirong.
Snow and wind blanketed the frontier. Assassinations, probing questions, and an identity on the verge of exposure awaited her. She thought she was going to her death alone, never realizing that the taciturn general had seen through everything long ago.
“Your Highness is afraid,” he said. “This subordinate does not know what you fear, and does not need to know.”
Then, at a grand banquet in the Beirong royal court, someone from her past identified her, and her identity as an impostor was exposed before everyone. The hall erupted in shock as blades closed in around them. He drew his sword and stood before her, saying only this to the Beirong ruler: “This subordinate is escorting the Great Zhou’s princess bride. Who the princess is, I do not know, and do not need to know.”
Only then did she understand that some people’s protection was never just a matter of duty.
But her true identity was far more than that of an impostor. She was the orphaned daughter of a loyal martyr who had died unjustly ten years ago, and the only person who knew the truth that could prove the Empress Dowager had colluded with the enemy and betrayed her country. When the truth came to light, she was no longer anyone’s shadow. She became the first blade of light to tear through the darkness.
After the wind and sand passed, the newly planted jujube trees in Liangzhou City began to sprout.
She sat in the city her father had once sworn to defend with his life. Beside her were jujubes that had taken three seasons to ripen, and a man who had walked out of the snowstorms beyond the frontier and never left her side again.
