Blazing Snow

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In the spring of the sixteenth year of Yongning, Zhao Yan went to the Beishan hunting grounds to clear her head, having just lost her fiance. That was the first time she met Cheng Ji.

The frail, pale young man curled up silently in his cage, head bowed. Yet his eyes shone like stars, and there was something about them that resembled the man who had passed away.

For the sake of those eyes, Zhao Yan picked him out from among the prisoners on the brink of death.

From then on, a quiet, obedient servant appeared at the side of the Princess of Pingzhao.

He led her horse whenever she went out and held the wine pot for her at banquets. On winter nights, she would tuck her cold hands and feet into his warm embrace, and he would obediently remain silent.

She thought he must hate her deeply.

But she didn't care. He was only a servant. He just had to obey, do as he was told, and keep to his place. That was enough.

Until an imperial edict arrived, granting her marriage to her cousin, Zhang Jue.

That night, the grown young man crushed the bright yellow silk edict beneath the window.

Looking at his inscrutable, shadowed eyes, Zhao Yan realized for the first time that he was simply himself. He had never resembled anyone else.

His snow-pale face drew closer in the flickering firelight. "Say it: you won't marry him."

That night, Zhao Yan came to know the servant who had followed her for four years all over again.

The fourth prince of Northern Liang, Prince Huainan, Yuwen Ji.

**

Cheng Ji had once loved someone deeply.

During the years he was held captive in Southern Chen, she was the only warmth in his bleak, hopeless life.

She taught him to ride, played chess with him, and whenever people bullied him, she would tend his wounds with a pained expression, then fiercely help him fight back.

Amid the desolate lamplight and fading songs of a snowy night, he held her cool jade-like waist close and understood for the first time what it meant for one's heart to flutter.

Until one day, after drinking, she gazed at him with blurry eyes and called him by another man's name.

Cheng Ji raised his head. His feelings and dignity shattered to dust in an instant.

**

In the winter of the twenty-first year of Yongning, the emperor of Southern Chen surrendered.

At the Northern Liang palace, Zhao Yan met her former servant again.

Tall and imposing, his presence commanding, he sat in a high seat and beckoned to her from above.

"Come here."

Reading Guide: 1. An imaginary dynasty with open-minded customs. 2. The heroine is an overbearing noblewoman and isn't particularly kind to the hero at first. She will interact in various ways with some male characters, so please take note if that's not for you. 3. The hero appears as a slave and grows stronger. He remains devoted to her from beginning to end. The hero is a virgin. 4. Includes a little melodramatic amnesia and a substitute-for-the-white-moonlight plot.

Theme: Sing with all your might, and don't waste your youth.