In the winter of Yonghui's nineteenth year, the empress entrusts the troublesome task of keeping watch over the hostage prince Yuan Lie to Xie Qingyun, her decisive chief lady-in-waiting. After two months with no progress, caught between her family's pressure to marry and the undercurrents at court, Xie Qingyun takes the initiative and asks the empress for a marriage decree. She will marry the hostage prince in exchange for a chance to find a way forward beyond the chessboard. On their wedding night, the "couple," each with their own agenda, share a room separated by a screen. Xie Qingyun does not know that what she sees as a purely transactional marriage has planted a seed in Yuan Lie's heart, one that took root eight years ago. Back then, when she was seventeen, she had unwittingly rescued him, an eleven-year-old boy lying in the mud. "Stay alive" became a ray of light in the dark years of his decade as a hostage. Now she has forgotten, but he remembers everything. In the melting snows of Huaiyuan Court, the marriage that began as a scheme quietly transforms.
Theme: Longing for freedom.
