[The full manuscript is complete and expected to begin serialization within the next two months]
Shi Yu and Gu Chengjing have fought in court for ten years, their relationship as hostile as fire and water.
Today I'll openly impeach you; tomorrow you'll secretly trip me up.
Everyone assumed that the reason neither of them had married by the age of twenty was that they were both entirely focused on taking the other down first.
Eventually, the two of them stopped fighting.
Because the brilliant Minister of Personnel, renowned for solving cases, and the battle-hardened General of the North ended up in the same prison cell.
Thinking back on her ten years as an official while living as a woman, Shi Yu lay on a pile of straw, staring into space. Suddenly, she said to General Gu in the next cell, "We've fought for so many years. What was the point?"
He remained facing away from her, standing tall and straight. At her words, he merely gave a soft hum, his mood impossible to read.
Shi Yu swung her dangling leg and mused aloud, "If there's a next life, I'll stay home, embroider, raise chickens, grow vegetables, and enjoy myself. I've spent this brief half-life crawling through muddy pits and lying amid riches. I have no regrets."
She blinked and looked straight at the rival she'd been fighting for half her life for the first time. "But I did hold you back, General."
She'd been so busy matching wits with him that he'd never had time to take a wife, even now that he was well into his thirties.
The man still stood ramrod straight with his back to her. Shi Yu never expected him to answer.
But a moment later, his cool, low voice rang out, and his sharp eyes beneath his tousled hair turned toward her. "You really did hold me back."
You held me back, and I lost a lifetime.
Sadly, my life was too short for me to tell you everything.
When the Gu family was falsely accused and Gu Chengjing left the capital in disgrace, Shi Yu had just placed third in the imperial examination, basking in her success.
She still remembered the young woman on a black-maned steed, dressed in crimson official robes and smiling radiantly. She was the brightest, most dazzling flower on Chang'an Street.
Back then, Gu Chengjing worried that if he returned too late, someone else might claim that flower of Chang'an first.
If he could do it all over again, he would be more proactive.
Reading Guide:
1. A story about a secret crush on a rival, one-on-one romance, both leads' first relationship.
2. The author writes political intrigue like a primary schooler, but the romance is guaranteed to be fresh!
Theme: The nation and its people
