Blurb One:
Song Yunxu, the powerful Grand Secretary who controls the court, is ruthless, bloodthirsty, cold, and gloomy. Everyone respects and fears him.
Once, a woman tried to climb into the Grand Secretary's bed. The next day, she was carried out under a white shroud.
After that, everyone knew that the Grand Secretary had no interest in women.
On the day Shen Ningxi was granted in marriage to Song Yunxu, the entire Duke's household was stricken with gloom. Everyone said that if Shen Ningxi married Song Yunxu, she wouldn't live long.
Shen Ningxi was afraid of the Grand Secretary's methods, too, but she didn't dare defy the imperial decree, for fear of bringing trouble upon her family.
On their wedding day, she anxiously waited for Song Yunxu to lift her veil. His hand, adorned with Buddhist prayer beads, reached toward her and then stopped. She heard him say, "If you don't want this, I'll send you back. I'll take responsibility for whatever happens."
She took his hand and called him, "Husband."
With that one touch, Song Yunxu knew he could never let her go.
Every day after the wedding, Shen Ningxi thought it might be her last. But she discovered that Song Yunxu was nothing like the man people described.
Blurb Two:
Everyone says Song Yunxu was born into a noble family. No one knows that before he made a name for himself, he was only a concubine-born son in the household. His birth mother died a horrible death, and a fortune-teller said he was born under an unlucky star.
He was driven out of the residence. Wounded and drenched by the rain, he curled up in a corner and thought he was going to die.
Shen Ningxi draped a cloak over him, gave him food and money, and told him, "You have to keep living."
He survived. Through every hard day that followed, he thought of those words.
She was the bright moon in the heavens, the only person he wanted to protect.
Theme: Independence and self-reliance
