Snow Offered in the Long Courtyard

Ming Fengxue was born in a time of chaos. Bound by a promise made in his youth, he devoted himself to plotting a way for Xie Liang to conquer the realm. He sacrificed everything, transforming himself from a celebrated young scholar into a scheming strategist loathed by all. But he could not defy fate or the hearts of men, and he was unable to turn the tide of the war.

For his final scheme, he put himself in danger, intent on killing the enemy general. But Xie Qiong withdrew his troops thirty li because a woman came to see him on a rainy night, and Ming Fengxue's plan fell apart.

On the day of his execution, many old enemies came to witness Ming Fengxue's downfall. The one person missing was his lifelong nemesis, the Zhou chancellor, Mu Changting.

Only then did Ming Fengxue learn that Mu Changting had died suddenly not long after he was captured.

His nemesis had died before him, but Ming Fengxue was not as glad as he'd expected to be. He could only think of the last time they met.

On a quiet night, with warm jade and wine in the air, he chatted about the past and casually held the wine cup in his hand to Mu Changting's lips. The gentleman from the south was silent for a long time. "Ziqing, I'm not a fool." Then he drained the cup.

Ming Fengxue suspected that Mu Changting would have drunk it even if it had been poison.

But the poison wasn't in the wine. It was in his schemes.

The executioner's blade fell. When he opened his eyes again, the first snow was falling, and the sound of students reading filled the air. Ming Fengxue had returned to his years of study at Molin, when he was still Xie Tinglanyu, pure and unblemished.

In the tenth month of the second year of Ningkang, Wang Xiu would raise an army in Jiankang, starting a twenty-year era of war and chaos across the south. In the tenth month of the second year of Ningkang, at Molin, Xie Liang would enroll and become Ming Fengxue's classmate and closest friend.

Ming Fengxue suddenly felt it was all too pointless. He closed his book, stood up, and left. When a classmate asked where he was going, he replied without looking back, "I'm tired of studying here. I'll study somewhere else."

*

At the foot of Nanyang Mountain stood a thatched-roof school. Years later, it would produce Mu Changting, Duke of the Mu Kingdom, a man famous throughout the land. For now, it was still unknown. There were no winding streams for poetry gatherings or refined guests discussing lofty ideas like at Molin, only yellow earth and blazing sun.

One ordinary winter afternoon, a handsome young man arrived at the school with four horses, three carriages, ten trunks of luggage, twelve servants, and two attendants. He said he wanted to study there.

"My surname is Ming, my given name Fengxue, and my courtesy name is Ziqing."

The youth had handsome features and an air of confidence. Looking at him, Mu Changting felt a familiar stirring in his chest, as though he had once felt this way many years ago.

Mu Changting is the top, Ming Fengxue the bottom.

I've decided to give historical danmei political intrigue another try. This is the coming-of-age story of two young strategists, and the pacing probably won't be fast.

Theme: Keeping the people and the realm in one's heart