No one knew that Qing Ying, the peerlessly beautiful empress who embodied the virtues of the realm, had once desperately loved someone in secret.
Before she married, bandits captured her in the mountains. Because she was a noblewoman from a prestigious family, they imprisoned her and demanded a ransom.
The second-in-command of the bandits came to interrogate her. He pushed open the cell door, a sword at his waist and handsome, refined features. His gaze swept over her from above, and before he even spoke, her heart was already in disarray.
It was a hopeless love between two people worlds apart, but Qing Ying fell into it helplessly, beyond saving.
One night, beneath a moon bright and stars sparse, she gathered her half-slipped robe around herself. Her lashes fluttering, she cautiously asked if he could go down the mountain with her.
"Miss, are you serious?"
Zong Yichen got dressed and stood, his thin lips curling faintly as he answered with casual indifference.
That night, the moonlight flowed like water, illuminating the coldness in his eyes like a merciless blade. It froze the young girl's budding love until it was bone-chillingly cold.
After paying the ransom and returning home, she agreed to a political marriage. Her life went smoothly: she became crown princess, then empress, sharing no affection with the new emperor but treating each other with respect.
Then one day, the court was shaken by the news that, during the decisive battle between the government and the bandits, the bandit second-in-command, who commanded a powerful force, had switched sides at the last moment. The court had won a great victory.
The reason was that Zong Yichen, the second-in-command, was a loyal agent trained by the late emperor. He had spent five years undercover in the mountains, alone, all for this moment of righteous victory.
The capital's ten-mile main street welcomed the hero back to the city. The young man bowed to the new emperor before the throne. When he raised his head, his deep, ink-dark eyes fixed directly on the empress at the emperor's side.
His gaze burned just as it had that night in the cell years ago.
At the palace banquet that day, among the profusion of flowers, Zong Yichen gripped Qing Ying's wrist. His voice was hoarse, filled with the longing he had waited years to express and the deep, obsessive love he had once been forced to bury.
"This time, let me be the one who's serious. All right?"
The empress calmly withdrew her hand, the faintest smile curving her lips. "Lord Zong, you have overstepped."
[Reading Guide]
1. Bandit undercover agent x noblewoman from a prestigious family; minister steals the emperor's wife; a groveling chase; love rivals; interrogation play (what is that doing in here?)
2. The heroine is a bewitchingly beautiful woman, peerlessly stunning and clever, with a clear head.
3. The hero became a loyal agent when young, then went undercover. He has a somewhat repressed personality and later becomes a powerful figure at court.
Theme: Never forget your original aspirations.
