She was the sharpest blade in the deep sea: the Ninth Princess Gong Li, with silver hair like frost and a heart cold as iron.
To break the shackles that had bound her for ten thousand years, she infiltrated the human world under the identity of the imperial merchant Feng Lin, weaving a magnificent web of power and intrigue.
Until the night of the Lantern Festival, when amid the clamor of thousands, she saw the eyes that bound them by fate.
Xie Jinyu was once the legitimate grandson of a high official. Now he was a male courtesan in the Baihua Pavilion, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder.
He had fallen from the clouds into the mire, yet his proud spirit remained unbroken, and his eyes still held the world.
She spent a fortune to buy him, to buy back his freedom. "Would you come with me?"
He followed her to the royal city beneath the sea, becoming both her most tender weakness and her most secret adviser.
She cleared his name; he took charge of her covert operations.
She taught him to weave moonlight into mermaid silk; he gave her the warmth of everyday life.
She said, "When I have burned every old pact to ashes, you and I will make a home wherever we go."
But he knelt before the sacrificial pillar by the sea, his blood staining the dark waters, all to win her a chance to live.
"A Li, don't look back. Keep going."
Later, she stole forbidden books, defied fate, and slaughtered every enemy.
The city of Yunxia shook amid the transfer of power, and the nobles wailed in blood and fire.
In the end, the Ninth Princess gave her life to uphold the law. Her silver tail became a storm of cold plum blossoms, falling by the shores of Guixu.
A thousand years later, the lantern fair in Xianjing shone as bright as day.
A scholar carrying a riddle lantern turned around and met a pair of bright eyes.
She wore red like a flame and asked, "Would you come with me, young master?"
He gazed at her in stunned delight, as though an old friend had sailed home. "I would!"
I once shattered the highest heavens, all to rewrite your fate.
Only later did I realize that you were the one destined to return to me, life after life.
Cold-blooded mermaid princess x steadfast human-world strategist
Aspiration: I want the deep sea to stop being a prison of bloodlines.
