Synopsis
Fu Xiaonan and Fu Xiaobei were orphans their master found in the winter of the twenty-third year of Qiyang.
Their master wasn't good at naming people, so he named them after the directions where he had found them.
They had disliked each other since childhood, each wishing they could kick the other out of the sect and become their master's sole senior disciple.
Though they lived in a time of chaos, having their master around made the three of them a happy little family.
Later, their master was poisoned and had only a few days to live, so he forced them to get married.
Afraid they would refuse, he even slipped a powerful aphrodisiac into their wine.
On their wedding night, beneath warm red curtains,
people said their bedframe collapsed.
Their master was very pleased. He patted both their heads, then passed away peacefully.
Even after they were married, they still couldn't stand each other. They bickered whenever they met and fought whenever they spoke.
Except...
After the wedding, they had one more thing to compete over: who was better in bed.
"Hey, Fu Xiaobei, are you some kind of dog?!"
"You damn dog, don't lick there!"
"Fu Xiaonan, if you don't want to die, get your claws off me!"
Their days went on in cheerful chaos.
Who could have guessed that, just as they were about to decide who had won their latest argument, the Taoist temple's long-neglected wooden door suddenly crashed to the ground.
A dense crowd stood outside.
They said they were the siblings' long-lost birth parents, come to take them home and restore them to their families.
One was a powerful general who commanded the army, the other from a prestigious scholarly family in Jiangnan.
The two looked at each other, their joined hands gripping tighter and tighter.
Being welcomed back into their families went smoothly enough, and both sets of parents were happy about the marriage.
But... a little problem came up.
Later, Fu Xiaonan saved the heir of the Marquis of Dingyuan amid the chaos, and from then on, an unwanted shadow followed her everywhere.
Say two words to him and he'd start tearing up! Every day, he wore less than the boys at the Spring Breeze House!
He was always asking Fu Xiaonan to check his chest! And Fu Xiaonan, too: looking was one thing, but why was she touching him?!
Absolutely shameless!
Fu Xiaobei was so angry his teeth ached.
After dark, he climbed into her bed and shook her awake.
Fu Xiaonan was just about to slap him when she saw him staring at her with those dreamy eyes.
"Have things at the academy been so comfortable that you've forgotten who you are?"
"Wife."
Just as Fu Xiaonan was about to ask if he'd lost his mind, Fu Xiaobei lowered his head and kissed her.
After a long while, he panted and murmured in her ear:
"It's such a beautiful night. Shouldn't we do something?"
Later, amid mountains of corpses and rivers of blood,
wounded Fu Xiaobei gazed at the dying sun over the northern frontier, through the smoke and sand.
He thought of Fu Xiaonan and wondered if she would mourn him as a widow after he died.
No, he hoped she wouldn't.
A free bird like her should fly toward mountains, rivers, and seas. She shouldn't be trapped by him.
The blood slowly drained from his body, and his eyes began to grow heavy.
Two enemy soldiers approached, swords in hand.
He chuckled softly and hurled his sword with all his strength, killing one of them with a single strike.
Too bad he only had one sword.
Seeing his companion fall, the surviving soldier pointed his blade at Fu Xiaobei and prepared to strike.
He closed his eyes, ready to die.
Thud!
The death he expected never came.
He opened his eyes and saw the young woman sitting astride a heap of corpses. She wiped her sword and looked down at him, complaining:
"I told you to focus when you were practicing your swordsmanship. Look at you now. You're a grown man, and I still have to clean up your mess."
"Fu Xiaobei, where's your dignity?"
The setting sun bled across the desert, smoke drifting over the sands.
Yet even that magnificent view couldn't compare to the sight of her.
The blurb was screenshotted on December 7, 2025.
Theme: Strive through hardship.
