Publication date: April 15, 2026
Shen Qinghe was born a noble lady of the Duke's household.
Not long after the emperor arranged her marriage to Prince Ning, making her his princess consort, she fell into misfortune and was abducted. She ended up in a remote mountain village where not even birds laid eggs. Pei Wuyun bought her for five taels of silver and took her home as his wife. He was tall and brawny, but knew nothing of romance and only charged ahead, with no idea how to treat a woman gently. Fortunately, he was still good to her.
One day, she realized she had no appetite, and whenever she stood up, she felt like vomiting. She wailed, thinking she must have some incurable illness. But Pei Wuyun came into the room in delight, picked her up, and began spinning her around. The world spun before her eyes, and she couldn't hold back: she vomited all over him.
Only after Pei Wuyun called a physician to prescribe medicine to protect the pregnancy did she realize, oh, she was expecting a child.
Stunned, she still felt unwilling to accept it. She had been a noble lady of a great house, the princess consort of Prince Ning by imperial decree. How had she ended up having a child with a mud-legged farmer from a mountain village?
But as spring gave way to autumn, she held her newborn and watched her husband working the golden rice fields during the harvest, with a well-stocked granary to show for it. She began to feel that muddling through life like this might not be so bad.
Then bandits struck, separating her from Pei Wuyun. She was captured with the village women and children. The bandit chief recognized her as the noble lady of the Duke's household, sought for so long with a reward of one hundred thousand taels of gold, and immediately took her to claim it.
The first thing she did after regaining her identity was to obey the imperial decree and marry Prince Ning. But by then, she no longer cared for Prince Ning at all and wanted to break off the engagement. Prince Ning, meanwhile, looked down on her for having spent two years living outside and losing her virtue. To protect the family's reputation, the Duke's household gave her three feet of white silk and a pot of poisoned wine, letting her choose how to die.
Just as she sadly chose the white silk and prepared to take her own life, someone kicked the door open.
A sword severed the white silk hanging from the beam. Pei Wuyun, clad in armor, swept her up in his arms, his powerful presence nearly engulfing her. Still dazed, she seemed to hear the people in the manor carefully call him
