I Owe You a Cup of Wine

| Why are people who tell nothing but lies the ones who keep their promises best? |

When Xiao Zhe was a young fugitive, he met a girl. She gave him a long-lost martial arts manual and accompanied him through many places as they wandered from one hardship to another. Then she helped him reclaim his position as heir by dying in a blaze that consumed everything.

At the age of twenty, Xiao Zhe met a woman at a palace banquet. An unexpected disaster put the royal family in danger, and everyone in the palace was like a frightened bird. Yet the woman came through unscathed and vanished without a trace. For some reason, Xiao Zhe had rarely suffered from illness ever since.

When Xiao Zhe's army was utterly defeated, he met a woman. He was a prisoner then, his shoulder blades pierced and bound. She calmly strode into the midst of the enemy forces, declared herself his betrothed, saved his life, and teased him day after day.

He'd planned to endure life under someone else's roof, nurse his injuries, and then think carefully about how to take revenge. But the world was in turmoil, and rumors suddenly claimed that the missing Imperial Seal had fallen into his hands. With pursuers behind and powerful enemies ahead, both the martial world and the court, both black and white, were filled with people who wanted him dead. The line stretched endlessly.

This time, the woman didn't leave.

Only many years later did he learn that she had never left at all.

The ruthless leader of the Southern Sword Sect, the well-mannered daughter of a wealthy family, the poison doctor who lied through her teeth, the frail daughter of a disgraced official: they were all the same person. But who exactly was Mo Qiu, and what was she really after? Xiao Zhe never knew.

He only knew that in her carefully laid plans, he had never been her match. On the road to revenge that she had so painstakingly built, he was the dog she had trained with her own hands.

Perhaps his purpose was simply to stay loyal and accompany her to the end of this road. Whether they would find happiness at the end didn't matter to anyone.

A thousand faces, a mad poison doctor x a gentle, world-weary, loyal heir

A career-minded heroine's perspective

1v1 / childhood sweethearts / made for each other / love of family and country / chivalry of the martial world / political intrigue / guaranteed happy ending

Theme: Be honest and trustworthy, and never give up.