[Female Lead's Perspective]
Zhou Hansheng was born into a prestigious family, of noble blood, yet everyone in the imperial palace avoided her as a harbinger of bad luck.
Rumor had it that she brought misfortune to her parents and had a deadly birth chart. Anyone who got close to her might slip and drown or suffer broken bones. At worst, their whole family could be implicated and executed.
So even though she was over eighteen, no elder dared arrange a marriage for her.
After returning from three years of guarding the imperial tombs, she was thought to have no one left to rely on, and the palace consorts believed they could bully her as they pleased.
But before those wolves and tigers could close in, the frail young princess had already thrown herself into the arms of the most ruthless man in the realm:
Xi Chen, Commander of the Western Depot.
To protect herself, she fed herself to the tiger and struck an unprofitable deal with him.
She would gather secrets about the nobility for him, becoming a hidden piece on his board.
In return, he would protect her for the rest of her life and find her a good husband.
In public, they were a lady and a eunuch with no connection whatsoever.
In private, they slept in the same bed, sharing each other's pain and pleasure.
Countless nights, Zhou Hansheng gritted her teeth and demanded of the man above her, "Xi Mubai, you promised you'd marry me off to a good man."
"Reliable, hardworking, easy to bully?"
His warm, damp voice brushed her ear. "That's me."
[Male Lead's Perspective]
Xi Chen entered the palace at seven, took command of the Western Depot at thirteen, and became the youngest Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial at seventeen.
The world treated him with respect to his face, but behind his back they called him cruel and unscrupulous, a lowly eunuch.
Only the little girl locked away in the forbidden palace wiped the blood from his face with her clean hands, held him as they knelt before the Buddhas, and begged, "Don't die. You have to live."
Because of those words, he crawled back from the gates of death, stepping over mountains of corpses and seas of blood as he rose to power, one step at a time.
Years later, the little girl no longer recognized him. He should have kept silent, quietly guarding her and watching her get everything she wished for and live a happy life.
But there was one thing she should never have done: knock on his door on that rainy night and stubbornly insist on making a deal with him...
"You brought this on yourself."
Only Heaven knew how long Xi Chen had held back the urge to take her under his wing.
Since she'd come to him of her own accord, she would never get away for the rest of her life.
A powerful fake eunuch who rules the court X a calculating young princess
Premise: Fight to survive, and let the clouds part to reveal the moon
