[Butterfly Lovers] A Stablewoman Who Doesn't Want to Be a General Isn't a Good Student

Gu Qiongzhi had always dreamed of becoming a great general. Though she was a girl, she was born with incredible strength. But her noble family had strict rules, and with her mother long dead and little time spent with her father, she never had the chance to set foot in a military camp.

She heard that a remarkable young woman from Shangyu, Zhu Yingtai, had disguised herself as a man to study at Nishan Academy, and eventually died by suicide with Liang Shanbo of Kuaiji for reasons no one knew. Gu Qiongzhi didn't know the details, but after her father heard about it, he stopped pressuring her to marry. He even gave her a chance to join the army.

Unfortunately, just as the relationship between father and daughter began to improve, war arrived. During Sun En's uprising, with enemy forces at the gates, Gu Qiongzhi, disguised as a man and now a cavalry general, defended Shangyu to the last. At the most critical moment, her immediate superior, General Ma Wencai, came to her aid with reinforcements. But Ma Wencai himself was gravely wounded and died on the battlefield.

Before he died, Ma Wencai seemed to think of someone. He held Gu Qiongzhi's hand and wouldn't let go, then murmured Yingtai's name as he passed away. Gu Qiongzhi was curious about what had happened, but the war was pressing and she had no chance to investigate. Though she was unwilling to accept it, Gu Qiongzhi eventually died in Kuaiji, where Wang Ningzhi, the administrator of Kuaiji, was also killed.

After closing her eyes, Gu Qiongzhi was pulled into a strange place, where she learned that she was merely a nameless passerby in a fictional folk tale, not even a protagonist. Fuming, Gu Qiongzhi watched the whole story of Liang and Zhu unfold, then received an important mission from a mysterious voice: repay a debt of gratitude.

It turned out Gu Qiongzhi should have died in Shangyu, but Ma Wencai had saved her. If she'd given up on becoming a general and fled at once, she could easily have lived to a ripe old age. But now that things had come to this, she owed him a debt. If she wanted to live to a hundred in this life, she had to make sure Ma Wencai survived too.

So the reborn Gu Qiongzhi used the thick skin she'd developed on the battlefield to coax her old father into letting her study. Our story begins in the year Gu Qiongzhi turns fifteen for the second time.

Note: The characters are based on the 2007 version of Liang Zhu. This doesn't follow the original plot, and most of the story is original. Above all, I hope to write a sweet story for Ma Wencai. It's just a sweet romance between a couple wearing the guise of patriotism.

Theme: Everyone deserves to be loved.