The first time Shen Wuyou met Gu Heng was under the old locust tree in the snow.
He dug out a piece of broken jade and put it into her hand: "I saw you looked like a swallow in the rain, so I wanted to give you an umbrella."
That was the first time someone gave her something after her father left. There was no condition, no "you have to pay it back later".
At that time, she was the eldest daughter of a down-and-out concubine in Yongchang House. Her father had just left and her mother was seriously ill. Her aunt looked at her like a commodity.
She told herself that she was just a swift and would fly away when the rain stopped. Don't be greedy for the warmth of the tile.
But Gu Heng was different.
He is the most prodigal son in Chang'an. His father scolds him for being unable to hold up a wall, and his stepmother regards him as a thorn in her side. But Shen Wuyou saw it: "You are the most ruthless person in Chang'an, and you are also the smartest person."
She went to him when she was desperate - her aunt wanted to give her to the sixty-year-old prince as a concubine.
She rummaged through her belongings: three taels of broken silver, an old calligraphy piece, and a piece of broken jade.
She got straight to the point: "Master Gu, do you want a wife or not?"
He married her. On the wedding night, he slapped the banknotes on the table and said, "If you want to leave someday, you can leave at any time."
She thought it was a deal. He also thought it was a deal.
Until the city of Chang'an was destroyed, he held her hand and said, "I can't live without you."
Until she dug him out from the pile of corpses and knelt in the bloody mud to hold his wounds.
Many years later, they watched the swifts flying back in the yard.
He said: "You said you were a Swift back then. In fact, you were not."
"Then what am I?"
Gu Heng turned to look at her, looking exactly like the fool digging for jade in the snow: "You are the one I have been waiting for for twenty-five years."
