The Sickly Beauty Taken Hostage in an Enemy Kingdom

Chu Huai'an, the legitimate son of the Marquis of Dingyuan in the Great Sui, was as bright as the moon and as elegant as the breeze, with a countenance like jade. Yet after the spring imperial examinations, he was ambushed on a bustling street and remained unconscious for an entire year.

In a long dream, he saw the crown prince, whom he had considered a close friend, ascend the throne. The new emperor accused Chu Huai'an's father, who had been sent to the frontier, of treason, exiled the entire Chu family to the border, stripped Chu Huai'an of his title as palace graduate with a single edict, and forcibly took him into the palace.

His elder brother died in a spray of blood on the flower-lined streets trying to save him. For decades afterward, war ravaged the Great Sui and misery filled the land, until the Northern Yan cavalry broke through the palace gates. At last, he fell into eternal sleep on a snowy night.

When he awoke from the dream, Chu Huai'an ignored his illness, his dark hair hanging loose as he walked through the falling snow into the palace. His delicate features could not conceal his frailty; though his sickly body seemed ready to fall apart, he was breathtakingly beautiful.

He knelt before the emperor's sickbed and begged for peace talks. War raged at the borders, the Great Sui was beset on all sides and the court was in turmoil, and the Northern Yan army was at the gates. Everyone feared for their lives.

No one knew what had happened inside the Xuanzheng Hall. The next day, an imperial edict was issued from the palace, sending the Marquis of Dingyuan's legitimate son to Northern Yan as a hostage. The imminent crisis was resolved.

*

Yan Suiyuan, emperor of Northern Yan, was ruthless and a master strategist. He had driven the Great Sui army back at every turn and seized dozens of cities. Everyone thought he would refuse the Great Sui's offer of peace, but he agreed...

The hostage brought gold and silver, fine jade, and crops from the Central Plains to the royal court. Yan Suiyuan held the gift list as he sat grandly on his throne, looking at the handsome young man kneeling straight-backed below. A wicked thought came to him, and he smirked. "Is the Great Sui sending us a hostage, or marrying off a prince?"

Chu Huai'an could no longer hear what the man was saying. The taste of blood rose in his throat, and he shut his eyes and fell straight over.

Yan Suiyuan: ...Did he just die of anger?

*

The little hostage from the Great Sui was beautiful, frail, clever, and kind. The desert winds could take half a person's life, but Yan Suiyuan was not a particularly attentive man, and he nearly let the boy waste away.

Even the subordinates who had always hated the people of the Great Sui sent in memorials to denounce him.

Yan Suiyuan: ...

The emperor, who had always been ruthless and decisive, began learning how to care for someone. He made the long nights less cold and the desert winds less fierce. At last, he gave his whole heart away. Holding the other's hand, he swore a solemn oath to the Eternal Heaven: he would bring gentle spring rain, keep the land at peace, and be with his beloved for all their lives.

After five years as a hostage, Chu Huai'an became the most special person at Yan Suiyuan's side, and the people of Northern Yan even revered him as a divine son.

Until the night before the Northern Yan cavalry broke through the Great Sui's palace gates, Chu Huai'an, already poisoned, calmly burned everything connected to himself. He put on the white robes he'd worn when he first arrived in Northern Yan, found a place where no one could see him, and went to sleep forever...

He died.

At least, that's what everyone in the northern frontier believed. They all grieved and mourned him.

But Yan Suiyuan refused to believe it.

His cavalry scoured the desert in search of just one person. Even the tallest snowy mountain in the north had heard Yan Suiyuan's prayers.

After that, lonely desert smoke rose, but the beloved was never heard from again.

For three years, he slept alone and lay alone. The emperor, sitting solitary on his throne, had become an empty shell. Numb, he guarded the royal court that no longer held Chu Huai'an, and guarded the place the other had called home... his hometown in Huainan.

Later, when floods ravaged Huainan, Yan Suiyuan traveled incognito to inspect the disaster. In front of Chunfeng Hall, crowded with patients, he spotted a graceful, handsome figure. His heart, which had long since stopped beating, suddenly throbbed with pain.

He stubbornly pushed forward, hoping to catch a sleeve, but the man hurried away, avoiding him as if he were a flood or a savage beast.

Yan Suiyuan's eyes reddened, and his voice turned hoarse. "Are you still going to leave...?"

Captivating, slightly unhinged, gentle beauty on the receiving end VS older, dominant, scheming, utterly unhinged pursuer

Theme: Peace reigns throughout the land, hand in hand with you