In the ninth year of Jianxi, steam billowed from the glassworks, and a lamp breathed out golden-red mist, staining the carved beams and coffered ceilings with the colors of a rainbow dusk. The pagoda's shadow shone on through the night.
Ming Jing, the Holy Son of Shantan, was branded with a curse by an imperial edict. Escorted from the Hundred Thousand Mountains to Que City, he was made to answer for the sins of the world with the body his mountain home had offered up.
The imperial relatives and nobles regarded him as a barbarian. Once the wine had gone to their heads, they would order him to ring his bells and summon spirits, then mockingly ask him to predict their fortunes.
The scions of great families sneered that his clothes and speech were improper, and privately called him a mountain demon.
Even the servants in the manor took advantage of the fact that he was a captive who might die at any moment, cutting his food and clothing and treating him with cold contempt.
Ming Jing, who had grown up among beasts in the mountains, had been imprisoned in a forest altar by the illusory, sacred sound of bells and drums. Then, driven by the boundless greed of the living, he fell into Que City, a hell on earth where war and malice lurked beneath a glittering world of indulgence.
One day, Ming Jing would drag that haughty son of the snowy plains into the mire and topple the cage of the old world with his own hands.
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The northern lands faced the sea, and the snowy plains stretched without end.
For generations, the Yuan family had guarded Wu Rejin. They worshipped the giant serpent as a god, took the wind and snow as their borders, and saw death in battle as a homecoming.
The heir, Yuan Qingsheng, was proud and violent, impossible to tame or subdue.
When he first saw Ming Jing, he raised his head like a black serpent and bared his venomous fangs at the butterfly, battered from head to toe yet still determined to spread its wings.
Afterward, Yuan Qingsheng turned back for him again and again, encircling and pursuing him. He followed Ming Jing through snowstorms, sacrificial fires, power struggles, and bloody clashes, until they shattered the illusions and never parted again.
A proud, wild, self-assured young lord who thinks the world of himself, only to fall hard × a peerlessly beautiful, aloof, gifted yet tragic youth with bright eyes and snow-white cheeks
Yuan Qingsheng (Yuan Dianqing) × Ming Jing (Ming Xueli)
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Reading Guide
1. Glass-punk setting, everything is in service of romance.
2. A self-indulgent passion project O~O
Theme: When the water is clear, the way is level.