[Blurb One]
Everyone in the Jiang household was arrested and thrown into prison. Only Jiang Suisui was saved by the Rongguo Mansion.
"Pei Xubai, have you come to save me again?" In the pitch-black dungeon, Jiang Suisui looked up, her eyes warm.
After a brief hesitation, he gave a soft acknowledgment and held out his clean, slender hand to her.
Suisui was deeply moved. She looked at the young man, her eyes shining.
Pei Xubai came from a noble family and was a young general on whom great hopes had been placed. Steady, reserved, quiet, and composed, he had been somewhat unruly and rebellious in his youth.
On the pitch-black, foul-smelling road, he kept her hand clasped tightly in his.
She gazed at his upright figure, her eyes misting over. Pei Xubai always stood beside her, before her, or behind her, and then told her, "Sui Niang, go boldly forward. Don't look back, and don't be afraid."
After all, her father, Chancellor Jiang, would only say to her, "Your courage, your convictions, and your perseverance are admirable. But you are too weak, so weak that you disappoint your father. Sui Niang, after all these years, is this little trick all you've learned?"
Suisui came back to herself. She truly, desperately wanted to be with him for the rest of their lives.
But if not for duty and honor, how much attention would he have paid her at first?
For the sake of duty, the boy who had always hated being called "Little General Pei" took up his spear to defend his family and country, becoming the great General Pei whom everyone expected him to be.
Her young man was gone, never to return.
In the heart of winter, she finally asked, "If we had no betrothal, how much attention would you have paid Sui Niang at first, Pei Lang?"
Pei Xubai's jaw tightened. He stayed silent.
She set down the divorce agreement, already stamped with the authorities' approval.
But she did not know that affections formed in youth cut deepest.
[Blurb Two]
Sui Niang was clever and gentle, but not weak. When she smiled, she was bright and adorable, but she was also very stubborn.
Before she returned to Chang'an, Pei Xubai already knew he had a betrothed.
One day at school, he met Sui Niang. She was genuinely sweet and adorable, but as they spent more time together, he came to understand just how hard her life was.
She was surrounded by wolves and tigers, forced to deal with a gang of villains.
When everything had finally settled, she asked, "If we had no betrothal, how much attention would you have paid Sui Niang at first, Pei Lang?"
Pei Xubai was stunned. He truly could not answer. At first, because of his mother, he had wanted to be kind to this silly girl, who seemed to get everything she wanted but was actually trapped in a miserable situation. But his initial approach had nothing to do with love.
Later, however, protecting her became a habit.
Another summer came around, just like the one when they first met.
Pei Xubai stared at her and said, "I spent three years on the frontier trying to live my own life, the way you told me to."
Words without proof are empty claims. Back then, he had not dared to give a definite answer to her question.
"But none of them were you..." Pei Xubai said hoarsely. "Year after year, it was always you and only you. If that isn't liking someone, then how could I possibly like anyone more?"
[Reading Guide]
1. Both leads have only been with each other.
Theme: Live for yourself
