General, Mind Your Manners

The situation in the capital was unstable. In just over a decade, the emperor had changed several times, and the great clans schemed against one another. It was quite a spectacle.

Unlike the other heroes who wanted to stir up trouble and the spoiled young masters who spent their days cockfighting and chasing dogs, Xie Yuanzhong came from a family of generations of officials and scholars. He followed the rules and spent most of his days thinking about passing the imperial examination, landing a minor post in Jiangnan, far from the capital's intrigues, then marrying a couple of beautiful wives and concubines. That would be a satisfying life with no regrets.

Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished. Xie Yuanzhong repeatedly failed the spring examinations.

The second son of the Xie family, idling at home, was already past twenty-two. His father, eager to see his son succeed, pulled some strings and sent him to the frontier, where he bought him a useless post as a prison warden.

The frontier was bitterly cold. Xie Yuanzhong resented his father's lack of faith in his ability to pass the examinations and did not want to suffer out there, so he made a fuss. But he could not defy his father and brothers, and was sent away all the same.

As he set out, Xie Yuanzhong consoled himself: if he honed himself on the front lines and earned some merit, he could return home in glory and make them all see him in a new light.

The newly departed Xie Yuanzhong had no idea he was heading into a den of tigers and wolves from which no one returned.

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Xie Yuanzhong: Once my three-year term is up, the Dragon King will return in glory.jpg

Pei Lianzhen: Thanks to Mother Nature (my father-in-law) for this gift.jpg

Rugged general Pei Lianzhen x young master of a noble family Xie Yuanzhong

Theme: Dedication to one's work and kindness to the people.