That year, she was seven. The first time she met him was when she was at her most unreasonable and impossible to deal with.
Seven years passed before she returned to her childhood home. By then, he was a hero, famed for his great deeds and countless military victories. At her coming-of-age ceremony, she began hearing the young ladies whisper about their feelings for him, and from then on, there was no stopping them.
She had only met him briefly at the estate when she was seven. Afterward, she left the capital to cultivate in the mountains. Over the years, she heard countless stories of his great deeds. When they met again, he was a cold, aloof prince, no longer the innocent and tender boy he had once been.
An unexpected imperial decree caught her completely off guard, leaving her both astonished and delighted. She was to become his princess consort! She looked forward to sharing a life of mutual respect with him and growing old together, but gradually discovered that he was hiding more secrets than she could count.
Love cannot be sustained by one person alone. If even the beginning of their marriage was shrouded in secrets, how could she bear it? She decided to leave. If she did not see him, she would not be heartbroken; if she did not see him, she would not miss him.
He liked that she was unlike the well-bred young ladies who always followed the rules. He liked her occasional capriciousness and free-spirited nature. In his plans, she had always been optional, merely an embellishment, someone he could do without. But this very person who seemed so dispensable threw everything into disarray. When he realized that even if he gained everything, he could never trade her away, how could he win her back?
