She is iron, he is steel. Put them together and sparks fly.
Ever since they were old enough to remember, every time Song Chuan and Qi Yu met, they raised a ruckus, shouting and spitting at each other.
Things were already bad enough, yet somehow their fathers decided to betroth them as children.
They even had the nerve to call it: "Fighting is affection, scolding is love. The more you fight and bicker, the sooner you'll get along!"
Qi Yu: My dad's an idiot!
Song Chuan: My dad's an even bigger idiot than yours!
But Qi Yu's idiot father was the emperor. Once he gave the word, the marriage had to happen, whether they liked it or not.
Who could have guessed that Qi Yu was so crafty even as a child?
Not long after the imperial edict arrived, he showed up at the Song residence and solemnly "called off the engagement."
His reason was utterly outrageous: "I'd marry a dog before I'd marry you!"
Song Chuan was so furious she nearly went mad. She fired back without missing a beat: "I'd marry a dog before I'd marry you!"
The whole city got a good laugh out of the two children's childish antics.
Only the emperor quietly stroked his beard: "You little rascal. Just wait until you regret this!"
Time flew by.
Suddenly, Song Chuan's foolish father was gone.
Suddenly, her mother told Song Chuan that she was adopted, and that her name wasn't Song Chuan at all, but Meng Zhen.
Suddenly, every relative around her turned into a hungry wolf, eyeing her greedily.
At that moment, Song Chuan died, then came back to life as Meng Zhen.
To the Song family, Meng Zhen's only remaining value was to be sent into the enemy army's main tent in exchange for their own meager survival.
Meng Zhen was trapped in a desperate situation.
The one person who came to save her was none other than her former nemesis, now Prince Yan!
When Qi Yu offered Meng Zhen the other end of his iron-limbed bow,
Meng Zhen seized her one lifeline without hesitation
and fell straight into Qi Yu's cold armor.
Qi Yu: Consider it a favor to a dog.
Meng Zhen: Consider me owing a dog a favor.
One favor given and one owed, and now they were hopelessly entangled.
Meng Zhen did everything she could to repay Qi Yu, and ended up seriously ill.
When she woke, all she remembered was her former nemesis.
To make it up to her, she settled quite comfortably into Prince Yan's residence.
Her greatest pleasure each day was watching Qi Yu grumble and curse,
watching him grumble his way to using his military achievements to clear her of the stigma of being a traitor's daughter,
then grumble his way into giving her the best treatment,
and finally grumble with regret: Why on earth had he called off their engagement?
By then, Meng Zhen seemed to have caught on, too:
without meddlesome outsiders stirring things up, it seemed she and her nemesis actually got along rather well.
Only the emperor had seen it all along.
Watching his son request permission to marry, he quietly stroked his beard once more:
"Well, look at you. That's some face-slapping!"
Theme: Warning: You might end up loving it
