There was no light in the death cell. Until one night, she walked in carrying a lamp and handed him a written testimony.
The testimony was false. The light was borrowed. The title of benefactor was stolen.
She borrowed a beam of light to atone for a sin she could never repay.
From then on, she became his only light, and he became the debt she owed. She thought she could get out of paying it, but he kept careful account of every last thing.
Until the broken jade pendant was joined together, and the whole world learned the truth:
He was Xiao Lingzhou, the sole survivor of the Xiao family.
The benefactor he had guarded for three years was the daughter of his family's enemy. The salvation he had protected with his life was a complete and utter deception.
A sea of blood stretched between them, and love and hatred left them torn.
He neither killed nor released her, keeping her imprisoned at arm's length.
She fled from love and debt, retreating step by step.
Later, when the court surrounded them and arrows flew in a deadly rain, everyone waited for him to abandon his revenge and save himself.
He shielded the woman before him with his own body and smiled as he spoke a single sentence:
"Three hundred and seventy-one lives cried out for vengeance, yet none mattered more than hearing you call me A-Zhou."
