Yuan Yuan’s parents both died. To protect her young brother and ensure he could grow up safely and inherit the title, she took her grandmother’s advice and had always shown deference to her second uncle’s family.
Though she was the cherished daughter of a martyr and heir to a vast estate, she was brainwashed into living frugally and treating her scheming cousin with loving kindness.
That is, until she caught her cousin and fiancé being all lovey-dovey in an alley. She decided it was time to live differently.
Yuan Yuan sets her sights on the fearsome general who is rumored to have beaten a woman to death and scared off two prospective brides, yet has won countless military honors. He would make the perfect shield for her and her little brother.
The fearsome general is peerlessly handsome and highly esteemed. He’s perfect in every way, except that he understands social niceties but is stubbornly upright, making him very hard to fool. Yuan Yuan refuses to believe it.
In the garden, Yuan Yuan bites her handkerchief with a worried frown, gazing at a persimmon tree whose fruit she can’t reach. After waiting for an hour and a half, she sees the general pass by.
“General Xie, the persimmons in your garden are so red. I can’t climb trees. Could you pick one for me?”
Xie Yun raises an eyebrow. “Should I have someone bring you a ladder, miss?”
“Go away.”
*
At a banquet, Yuan Yuan brings out the bright red persimmons sent by the general’s residence to serve the newly appointed top scholar. The two talk happily together.
That night, the fearsome general, who had looked down on her, barges into her bedroom and pins her against the wall, one broad hand cupping her below the waist.
His eyes are bloodshot as he gently rubs and kneads that spot with his palm. “Yuan Yuan?”
It’s hard to tell whether he’s calling her name or referring to her round... there.
Yuan Yuan melts into the man’s arms, humming. She really had thought he was made of iron and stone.
Theme: Have the courage to pursue what you want and change your fate
