The first thing Tuoba Lin said to Zhao Mingshu was, "Get in. It's cold up north."
That day, she left through Yanmen Pass in a peacock-feather cloak, a princess sent from Southern Chu to Northern Yan as a bride to seal an alliance.
Three years later, he destroyed her kingdom, put her imperial brother in an agarwood box, and sent him to her bedside as a birthday present.
She knelt. "I thank Your Majesty for your gracious favor."
For the next five years, she was the most obedient empress in Northern Yan. Every day, she placed a red bean in a hidden compartment beneath the Buddhist shrine. When she reached 1,826 beans, it was New Year's Eve.
She warmed a pot of green plum wine for him.
"I gave you my whole heart."
"Not for a single day, a single moment, or even an instant."
Twenty years later, behind the bamboo curtain at Baoying Temple, someone brewed a cup of green plum tea for him.
He did not lift the curtain. He only said, "It's warmer in the south. Master, you should head back soon."
"It's cold up north."
