My Beloved Comes Only in Dreams

The Great Zhou princess Baoying has skin as fair as ice and bones as delicate as jade, with a graceful, lovely bearing, yet she is the least favored in the palace. She has neither her royal father's affection nor her brothers' protection, and even her sisters often look down on her. It is not until the end of spring in the seventeenth year of the Kailuan era that, a little tipsy, she wanders by mistake into a long-abandoned palace hall. She pulls out an ancient book, then falls fast asleep behind a bookshelf. That very night, in her dream, someone murmurs softly and paints a vermilion mark between her brows. The dream is tender and lingering, steeped in heady romance. Even more astonishingly, everything she gains in her dreams becomes reality once she wakes. From then on, the abandoned hall becomes her place of rest. Baoying wishes only that her dreams might come true in this life, so she can meet her beloved in person. Who could have imagined that the world would change overnight? Her country falls, her family is destroyed, and Baoying becomes a slave at the mercy of others. In the chaos of battle, she hears that familiar voice once more. "Baoying?" He walks toward her through the swirling snow of the northern frontier, then smiles as he grips her by the throat. * Tan Qingyan has always been regarded as an oddity. Love, desire, guilt, jealousy, and self-reproach, which torment ordinary people, are all hollow notions to him. He prides himself on always being one step ahead, able to turn the clouds with one hand and bring rain with the other, all for the fleeting pleasure of toying with people's hearts. One spring afternoon, he returns in a dream to the brilliant peach trees, when he hears someone softly call from behind him: "My beloved." He turns. Mist drifts all around, the spring waters run deep, and Baoying smiles as she always did, throwing herself into his arms. Then comes the sharp blade aimed at his heart. A born villain and a haughty princess. A love steeped in hatred. The crematorium. Theme: Revenge and redemption