[Free-spirited young general vs. delicate yet strong-willed noble princess]
Cui Lingyi was born frail and unable to withstand the slightest strain. Even her coughs were so faint they sounded worrying, as if she might break apart in the wind at the slightest exertion. When she was born, a heavenly master predicted she would not live past twenty.
Fortunately, she had a noble status as the Empress Dowager's only granddaughter. When she turned eighteen, they found a way for her to live to a hundred:
The good news: She could do it by marrying someone whose birth charts matched hers, without any pain.
The bad news: That person was Xie Xu...
Cui Lingyi: Heavens, that's not how you give someone a way to live...
As clear-minded as a piece of jade, Cui Lingyi was caught in a dilemma because she really did not like Xie Xu. When they were young, he not only roasted her pet fish, but also ruined her confession to her first love, sitting in a tree and watching her make a fool of herself... He made an already short life even worse.
As an adult, he had outgrown his mischievous ways and become a rough soldier who spent all day in the military camp. He even shamelessly bragged in public, "So what if she's a princess? I'll have her eating out of my hand before long..."
But with life and death on the line, Cui Lingyi had no choice but to bow to fate and marry Xie Xu by imperial decree.
Still, she would see who ended up taming whom.
*
On their wedding night, she laid down three rules: "We won't share a bed, we won't fall for each other, and once I make it past my twentieth birthday and survive my fated calamity, we'll divorce. You can pick whatever estate, money, and land deeds you want. I don't need your measly share."
The man, just about to lift her veil, froze. He set her usual medicine by the bed and said breezily, "Fine. Whoever doesn't divorce the other is a loser."
Six months later, Cui Lingyi looked at him sitting on the floor washing her feet and deliberately kicked water in his face. "Come on, tell me now, who's taming whom?"
The man silently wiped his face. "You're taming me..."
"At least you know your place. You, Xie Xu, are the one who gets tamed by me." The young princess was smug.
The man smiled and played along. "That's right... Xie Xu, who fears nothing, only wants you to tame him."
Later, the Taoist who had read her fortune was arrested. He admitted he had misread her fate: her destined match was someone else, and the only other way to avert her calamity was to wear the heirloom jade cong of the Mobei royal family.
Now that nothing bound her to Xie Xu, Cui Lingyi packed her belongings well in advance and waited for him to return so they could end this farce. But the man who used to shout loudest about divorcing her dropped to one knee before her. He did not even glance at the divorce papers, land deeds, or banknotes she had left for him. He kissed the back of her hand and asked reverently:
"Manman, shall I crush the Mobei royal court for you?"
Theme: Love is found in the little things
