Warm Willow Catkins by the Green Gate

Her wedding coincided with a national mourning period. Wen Qingyin, who was just one step away from becoming the heir apparent's wife, was sent to stay at Qingmen Temple for a while, where she unexpectedly came across a handsome man. He seemed carefree on the surface, but was anything but idle in secret: one moment he was meeting with a vassal prince, the next he was plotting against a prince. Could he be planning a rebellion?

To avoid being silenced, she pretended to go along with him. Swearing brotherhood and sisterhood was simply a way to keep him in check.

To avoid getting dragged into his troubles, she tried to coax him down the mountain, coming up with all kinds of excuses, but he rejected them one by one.

Xie Yuan'an said he had no blood relatives left in the world. His "sworn younger sister" was the last person he had to protect, and besides, he still owed her for saving his life...

Fine, if he wouldn't leave, then she would! Wen Qingyin brought out her final trump card: getting married.

But just as she happily climbed into the wedding carriage to marry her beloved, the carriage took a wrong turn and delivered her to an unfamiliar estate.

She could call to heaven and get no answer, plead with the earth and find no way out. The man seated above her let his phoenix eyes wander over her wedding clothes, then asked in confusion, "Didn't little sister say she was just going down the mountain to visit a grave?"

-

Wen Qingyin accidentally stumbled upon the things he had kept hidden from the light, and Xie Yuan'an had known all along. The only way to keep from killing her was to never let her out of his sight.

At first, he thought it was gratitude.

Later, he realized he was wrong.

His gaze had never lingered because of a debt of gratitude.

Theme: Joining hands to build a better homeland