Both leads are each other's only partners. The male lead has to win back his wife after she fakes her death.
Xuan Xunyan, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Pingyuan, had bright eyes, pearly teeth, and unmatched beauty. She had trained in martial arts since childhood and won great distinction on the battlefield before she came of age.
"A girl who spends all day fighting and killing, and can't sew, play the zither, or paint, which noble family would marry her?"
Rumors like these never stopped during the two years Xuan Xunyan spent back in the capital. Then an imperial decree came, betrothing her to the current Seventh Prince, Zhao Junhuan.
According to rumor, Zhao Junhuan was unpredictable, cruel, and violent. The bodies of servants from his manor were often thrown into mass graves.
On their wedding night, the prince, rumored to be a brute, stood tall in his splendid robes.
Xuan Xunyan watched him bend toward her. His handsome face held a dark, fervent look of reverence, as if a beast had sheathed its claws and bowed in submission.
He said, "Yan'er, at last I've married you."
No one knew they had met as children and shared a close bond since then. Only Xuan Xunyan knew that Zhao Junhuan had no intention of being an idle prince.
When rebellion broke out in Miaojiang, Xuan Xunyan accompanied her father on an expedition. On the day the rebellion was quelled, the old emperor died, and news reached the army that the new emperor, Zhao Junhuan, had ascended the throne.
There was also an imperial decree appointing a consort: Zhao Junhuan had made the daughter of a newly married Duke the empress, while naming Xuan Xunyan a consort.
Xuan Xunyan refused the decree and stayed behind to defend the southern frontier.
She should have known. In Zhao Junhuan's eyes, power mattered ten thousand times more than she did.
Less than half a year after the new emperor took the throne, a bloody battle broke out in the south. Xuan Xunyan held the city to the death and died for her country.
When the battle report reached the imperial capital, the tyrant, who never showed his emotions, vomited blood in front of his ministers.
After that, every palace chamber Xuan Xunyan had lived in became forbidden ground.
Zhao Junhuan had thought that the cool, stubborn girl from his memories would always stand behind him.
But in the end, all he held in his hands were the tattered remnants of her clothes and armor.
During the Lantern Festival, fireworks lit up the capital all night. In a corner of the city, he saw a woman who looked just like Xuan Xunyan.
Overjoyed, he approached her, but there was no recognition in her eyes. She simply brushed past his shoulder and walked on without a care.
Theme: Better to defend your country than fall in love
