At thirteen, Yan Zheng, the least favored concubine-born daughter of the Marquis Changxin's household, was poisoned and blinded, then sent to a manor twenty li outside the capital to “recuperate.”
In the early winter of the tenth year of Yonglin, exactly four years after Yan Zheng's failed attempt to take her own life, Pei Su held a dagger to her, pressing it against his blood-soaked chest.
A faint smell of blood hung in the air. Yan Zheng leaned quietly against the man and heard him say,
“If you don't want to die, keep quiet.”
*
Pei Su considered himself someone who settled his debts, both good and bad. Once free, he asked a close friend to repay Yan Zheng's “kindness” on his behalf.
He and Yan Zheng should have been even from then on, with nothing more tying them together.
But on the banks of Qujiang in May, fishing lights twinkled. In the season when pomegranate blossoms burned bright, Pei Su's gaze drifted toward a swaying curtain of green gauze in the distance.
A strong medicinal fragrance swept past him. In an instant, he recognized those eyes, black as ink.
*
Only belatedly did Yan Zheng realize that Pei Su had not married her for the simple reasons he claimed.
Beside the desk, Yan Zheng carefully counted how many turns the inkstick made on the inkstone. A piece of green jade on her fair wrist swayed gently.
Following her gaze to the broken half of a military tally, Pei Su asked, “My wife, is something on your mind?”
The blind woman smiled slightly. “Something is on Your Highness's mind.”
[Reading guide]
1. Both leads are sexually inexperienced | Married first, fall in love later | A mix of bittersweet and sweet
2. The heroine grows over time; this is not a story about an all-powerful heroine. At first, she is very weak, both from illness and a broken spirit. Later, she regains her sight and plays the pig to eat the tiger.
3. The story follows the heroine's perspective. Her storyline is detailed, and the romance between the leads is a slow burn.
Theme: Be self-reliant and strong
