In the twenty-sixth year of the Hongde era, General Yu Heng of Zhen'an was accused of murdering the crown prince. His entire household was executed, and only his daughter, Yu Jiangyue, escaped by faking her death. From then on, she lived under an assumed name. Ten years later, Yu Jiangyue returned to Luojing. Driven by an obsession she had never been able to let go, she set out to uncover the truth and clear her family's name.
Before long, she ran into an old acquaintance in Luojing, one bound to her by a blood feud: Huo Qing, the son of the late crown prince.
It was a bright, clear day, perfect for a hunt. Only, the arrow was aimed at the hem of her skirt.
The reserved, well-mannered boy she remembered had become a dissolute playboy who chased wine and women. He rode up to her, amusement dancing in his eyes, casually took off his red fox cloak, and tossed it down to her from his horse.
So Yu Jiangyue, who could wield twin blades and fearlessly hunt tigers and wolves, now stood with tears in her almond-shaped eyes and trembling shoulders, as delicate as a flower in the rain. In a soft voice, she said, "Your Highness's cloak is worth a fortune. This common woman could never accept it."
The late crown prince and his wife had been close with her parents, and Huo Qing had once been something of a childhood sweetheart to her. But now, their stations were worlds apart: one was the noble Prince Jing, the other a fugitive daughter of a disgraced official.
Yu Jiangyue wanted nothing to do with him. Huo Qing was the person most likely to see through her disguise, and the one most likely to kill her with a single stroke of his sword.
But fate had other plans. Not only was she unable to avoid him, she ended up becoming his concubine.
After entering his household, she hid her identity with even greater care, playing the part of a timid, obedient, frail woman day after day. Yet on what she called her "death anniversary," she heard a drunken Huo Qing whisper her childhood nickname by her ear, the nickname that belonged to the real Yu Jiangyue.
"Jiaojiao."
"She is the moon I lost, and found again."
Theme: A young man never yields to adversity
