Cao Anruo, the future crown princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty, had been raised in the palace since childhood. Beautiful and dashing, clever and learned, she was high-born and deeply cherished. In 1019, the fourteenth year of Emperor Zhou Yuande's reign, when Anruo was sixteen, the Empress Dowager ordered her to return to the Marquis of Guiyi's residence in Shazhou, in preparation for the Crown Prince to formally welcome her as his bride.
As rulers of the world's greatest empire and its revered Empress Dowager, they never imagined that once Cao Anruo set off, vanishing into rolling yellow sands and an endless desert, no reply would ever come.
Ten years later, envoys from the distant Seljuk Empire, the Arab Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Northern Sea Empire arrived one after another to seek the hand of the Eastern Empire's princess, "Cao Anruo, Moon over the Sea and Rose of the Desert." The emperor and empress were delighted. The Crown Prince was furious.
When the news reached Shazhou, Cao Anruo returned after traveling thousands of miles and asked in surprise, "The Crown Prince still hasn't married?"
The young general who had traveled across Eurasia with her, looking down on the princes and nobles of every nation, darkened his expression and gazed into her eyes. "Anruo, don't go."
The cold-faced intelligence officer, who had risked his life to save her several times but always claimed it was simply his duty, blocked her path, his eyes bloodshot. "Cao Anruo, do you have no heart?"
The Arab royal poet of mysterious origins plucked his oud. "If anyone wants to take my moon away, let them first face the razor-sharp scimitar at my waist."
Theme: Women should be strong and self-reliant
