May Your Prayers Bring You Long Peace

The Ruoxi Dynasty, Tianqi Era, Yidu. A fierce snowstorm rages.

A young emperor is busy preparing to marry her wife, but none of this has anything to do with Lu Qi'an.

"Wait, where am I? Who am I?" Lu Qi'an, who had been about to find her professor and ask for revisions to her thesis, stands bewildered in the wind. She stares at the vast white snow and the quaint wooden houses, and feels the bitterly cold wind. A wave of despair wells up inside her.

Without the ability to farm, a household registration, or a known identity, it is hard to survive a harsh winter in a foreign land.

But...

If you call her lucky, then yes, someone found her, and she didn't die early in the freezing snow. If you call her unlucky, then yes, her life has been so miserable that dying in the snow would have been a more painless end.

Later, Lu Qi'an meets someone. Being with her feels as sweet as honey, but Lu Qi'an knows she has many secrets, secrets she cannot uncover even when they are so close that their cheeks and temples brush together.

Later still, Lu Qi'an befriends someone else who, like her, came from another world. Together, they complete a mission and give each other their sincere affection.

As for all those joys and sorrows, partings and heartaches, love and hate, longing and resentment... let them all fade away with the howling wind.

Tianqi, early summer

The imperial palace is silent.

Suddenly, flames leap into the sky, and swords flash.

The coup... begins.

Just as the Su royal house of the previous dynasty fell.

The strange thing is, it seems far too easy, almost as if not a single soldier had to be lost.

The two mission-takers never could have imagined

that the targets they had searched so desperately for were the very people they spent every day with, the ones they had given their hearts to, the ones who shared their beds.

A little suspicion, a little sincerity, yet neither could withstand

the hatred between nations and families, the pain of losing a child.

They had not given even a fraction of their hearts, and yet, with obstacles before them and heavy burdens weighing on their hearts, they buried their love until death parted them, leaving their love unfulfilled.

Stubborn, sensitive souls, do not grieve. Your beloved will be waiting at the end.

"Are you really sure?" A mechanical voice rang out in a remote hall.

Lu Qi'an and Lin Xicheng exchanged glances and answered in unison, "Yes."

"Then you may never be able to go back. Have you really made up your minds?"

"Xiao Jiu, A Yan... A Yan is still so young. She can't die. I have to save her!" Lin Xicheng choked on her words, her red-rimmed eyes glistening with tears.

She had no other options. The technology here could not save A Yan, so she could only turn to the System and ask it to take her to the modern world for treatment.

"Yan Yan is so adorable. How could I stand by and do nothing? She's supposed to call me Auntie, after all. Besides, I'm an orphan. Wherever the person I love is, that's home." Lin Qi'an was moved by Lin Xicheng's emotions. Her voice was hoarse but resolute.

"All right." A few breaths later, only a faint sigh remained in the hall.

Tianqi, third year, late summer

Inside Fengqi Palace

A gentle-looking beauty screamed at the person dressed in imperial yellow: "Your Majesty, what have you done to A Yan? Where have you taken my A Yan?" Her voice was anguished, and tears streamed down her face.

Seeing her beloved in such pain, Lin Xicheng hurried over and gathered her into her arms. The woman struggled violently, beating at her and weeping.

"A Cheng, give me back my Yan Yan." Her voice was thick with sorrow, and her tears soaked Lin Xicheng's arm.

"A Mo, calm down. A Yan will come back... She will come back."

Later, Su Jinchen joined forces with Su Jinmo to launch a coup. Lu Qi'an and Lin Xicheng finally identified the mission target and completed the System's mission to restore the dynasty to its rightful ruler.

In the end, Lu Qi'an fell from a cliff and died, and the emperor and empress were estranged.

All that remained, swaying in the cold wind,

was a single prayer:

"Su Jinchen, may you always know peace.", Lu Qi'an

But the story is not over yet...

"A Prayer"

Snow falls on Yidu's upturned eaves,

heralding a dynasty born of winter.

You offered me the warmth of half a rock-candy sweet,

the only light I could touch in my abyss.

Even if lies became the threads

that wove a prison around us,

they still could not stop

seeds of love from quietly sprouting

in the soil of hatred.

When the battle plans sweep away the last whisper of wind,

I will complete my promise to protect you as I fall.

May my journey home

win your realm a lasting peace.

The wind and snow will eventually cease.

In another world,

we will meet again

in a spring without conflict or hatred.

Theme: Stubborn people need a lover who won't leave, and distrustful people need absolute loyalty even more