Shen Qingwu, the lowest-ranking female scribe in the Ministry of Punishment, married Xiao Huai, the most feared chief of the Imperial Household in the capital, on behalf of her sister who had escaped from marriage.
When she lifted her hijab on her wedding night, she discovered that the burn marks on the cuffs of the person beside her pillow were exactly the same as the evidence fragments at the scene of the Shen family's murder case five years ago. The fire killed her father and seven members of her family. She was the only one who climbed out of the back window and survived.
What sent shivers down her spine was that there was a letter hidden at the bottom of her dowry box. It was written by Xiao Huai five years ago but would never be sent. She decided to investigate. But the more she investigated, the more something was wrong: he went out to kill someone in the middle of the night, but sat next to her bed at dawn; when she was assassinated, he blocked the knife for her, and the location of the wound exactly matched the murderer's mark in the case file; he told her, "Marrying you is a deal," but he called her mother's nickname when she was in a high fever and comatose. On the fifth day, he pushed her out and put her in jail. On the sixth day, he was covered in blood and dragged her out of the capital. On the way to escape, he said: Five years ago, he rescued a girl from a fire. The girl burned her left arm. She rolled up her sleeves, and the old burn scar was stuck to the inside of her arm. On the ninth day, she finally turned to the last page of the letter. It's not a testimony or a secret, it's just three words: I love you.
