Back when Chen Dao'en was still a farmer's son, Xue Rao helped pay for his education. When he became the target of jealousy and was bullied, she stood up for him.
Before he knew she was a woman, Chen Dao'en shared a bed with her and talked with her about everything. After learning the truth, he kept three paces away, observing the boundary between men and women: affection may arise, but propriety must be maintained.
Chen Dao'en never imagined that one day he would have to make a choice about preserving their friendship. When he wanted to keep the friend he had once regarded as his lifelong confidante, making her a "woman" and keeping her by his side seemed to be the only choice left.
Xue Rao saw through all his frantic, secret striving and witnessed the miserable shame of his humble origins. Yet she made him believe that as long as he was valuable enough, even someone as tainted as him could dare to yearn for the moon.
After he earned fame as a six-time laureate and basked in boundless glory, he was finally worthy of her.
But she married the young marquis who was the talk of the capital.
On the eve of her wedding, Chen Dao'en asked to meet her. His face was so restrained and controlled, yet so close to falling apart, that anyone would have felt pity for him.
But Xue Rao always remembered:
On the day their country fell in her previous life, he sat astride his horse, his dark eyes as black as ink. He glanced over lightly, then turned to the bandit chief and said, "My wife is as plain as a willow branch, unfit for refined company. If the young khan takes a liking to her, it will be her good fortune."
"She is the sin he committed in his previous life, and the ordeal he must endure in this one."
Theme: Be a little kinder.
