The entire Shen family was framed and wiped out overnight.
Eight years ago, she concealed her identity and drifted through Great Yan, reduced to a lowly maid. Day in and day out by his side, she gave her heart to the wrong man.
When the truth pierced her to the bone, she saw how her family's blood feud was entangled with the Great Yan imperial house. She left without a word that very night and vanished without a trace.
He searched for her for two years, consumed by obsession, crossing the thousands of miles of Great Yan's mountains and rivers without success.
Two years later, with war about to break out along the border between the two nations, an imperial edict of marriage alliance was issued.
Everyone thought the one marrying far from home would be the pampered Princess of Hengshuo, matched with Great Yan's good-for-nothing Prince Rui.
No one knew that
The one truly traveling to Great Yan and stepping into the trap was a daughter of the Shen family: Shen Xuening.
She took another woman's place, not for a good marriage or a life of glory.
She did it only to return to Great Yan under the status of a princess sent in a marriage alliance, clear her family's name after nine years of injustice, and avenge her murdered kin!
But no matter how carefully she planned, she still miscalculated.
The marriage procession traveled a thousand miles to its destination, and the one who dismounted was none other than the man she had tried to avoid, the man she loved and hated to the bone: Prince Chen, Xie Jinci.
Beneath the pavilion in the middle of the lake, he clutched her wrist, obsession and madness in his eyes:
"Shen Xuening, you abandoned me two years ago. Today, you've walked right into my trap. You won't escape me again in this lifetime."
Her gaze was cold and distant, her lips faintly curved:
"Your Highness, we're only spouses by agreement. We each get what we need. Love has nothing to do with it."
Later,
He cast off his icy pride, humbled himself at every step, and, consumed by obsession, offered her the entire realm in the hope she'd turn back to him.
She held her family's blood feud close, advanced step by step with careful plans, and watched coldly as he descended into madness.
Everyone knew that Great Yan's cold-blooded Prince Chen had spent his life killing without mercy, yet for one princess who had taken another woman's place, he lowered himself into the dust and loved her to the point of madness.
D(^^*)