While out hunting in the mountains, Liu Qingping finds Mu Hongxi unconscious and badly wounded.
Liu Qingping lives with her father and is looking to take a husband into their home. Seeing Mu Hongxi's cool, otherworldly beauty, she is tempted by his looks.
She thinks that saving his life and caring for him so tenderly will be enough to make Mu Hongxi willingly marry her.
But Mu Hongxi only gives himself to her so he can survive and return to the capital to take revenge. Not only does he feel no gratitude for her kindness, he feels humiliated by it.
Once he's able to stand, he sets their home on fire, trying to get rid of the woman who saw him at his lowest, covered in mud and looking wretched.
Her father dies of his injuries after saving her and her daughter, and her daughter's eyes are damaged by the smoke.
She's lost the will to live, but for her daughter's sake, she works and travels for years until she finally saves enough for the journey to the capital, where she can seek treatment.
Kneeling by the roadside in the capital as the Crown Prince's procession passes, she learns for the first time that her heartless husband isn't surnamed Mu.
Hongxi is the name of his Crown Princess.
She's busy selling herself as a concubine to raise money for medicine and hasn't had time to settle the score with him when he comes looking for her. He calls her a shameless woman and takes their daughter away.
What happens next? Oh, later, he goes mad for some reason and imprisons her in the Eastern Palace.
And whenever she finds an opportunity, she stabs him, then sets a fire and runs until the guards chase her to the riverbank.
She could surrender, but she misses home. She thinks the river might carry her back, so she leaps in.
Her name was ill-omened. Perhaps that was simply her fate. She accepts it.
Her body is like a willow catkin borne on the wind, her life like duckweed with nowhere to take root.
Liu Qingping is throwing another tantrum in the Eastern Palace. Barefoot, she smashes every breakable thing in the Crown Prince's chambers.
The commotion is so loud that Su Hongxi comes running. He sees the usually dignified, cold-hearted Crown Prince softly coaxing Liu Qingping, afraid she'll hurt her feet.
Su Hongxi joins in, trying to soothe her. At the sound of her voice, Liu Qingping stops, then looks at the Crown Prince with a faintly mocking smile and calls him, "Mu Hongxi."
The Crown Prince presses his lips together. "Li Zejin."
Liu Qingping throws the object in her hand at him and grits her teeth. "Mu Hongxi."
Then she strides toward the Crown Prince. He hurriedly picks her up and takes several blows. "Mu Hongxi."
This time the Crown Prince loses his temper and answers angrily. He restrains Liu Qingping and carries her into the inner chamber, then leaves Su Hongxi with a furious, controlled remark: "Tomorrow, the Crown Princess will change her name."
Before long, sounds of the two of them fighting seem to come from the inner chamber, but Liu Qingping's angry curses gradually change in tone.
One-on-one couple. Both leads are sexually inexperienced.
The male lead disliked the female lead before, but he didn't go so far as to set her on fire and try to kill her. It was a misunderstanding.
A deeply tragic romance, full of angst.
The female lead suffers in the first half, then the male lead suffers in the second half. He has to win her back.
Blurb screenshot dated 27/01/2023
Theme: True love is hard to find, so cherish it as you go.
