Huai Xu's homeland was Xijing. She once saved someone there.
On a winter night in the seventh year of Qining, Lu Xun, a hostage from Nanyue, was thrown into a wolf cage by the powerful for their amusement.
Among the circling wolves, Huai Xu met his eyes, bright as glass beads, and tossed a dagger into the cage.
She saw Lu Xun again thousands of miles away, in Nanyue.
After ten years as a hostage in Xijing, Lu Xun returned to Nanyue, took up residence in the Eastern Palace, and became heir to the throne.
By then, Huai Xu had long since lost her family and home. After many turns of fate, she had come to Nanyue and served the Prince of Rui for years.
She was the Prince of Rui's attack dog, hidden among the pleasure houses, and the most ruthless executioner in Wangyue Pavilion.
To her, Crown Prince Lu Xun was a mission, a source of intelligence she had to lure into her traps, and a bargaining chip for staying alive.
He was a soul she would one day kill with her own blade.
Beneath red candles and soft bed curtains, she toyed with Lu Xun's collar, her pale, jade-like fingers brushing his chest as she whispered sweetly to beguile him.
In the blood-soaked mud, she could raise and lower her blade, severing necks and breaking bones with effortless ease.
Huai Xu had thought she would keep wearing that mask of frail goodness until Lu Xun died, or she did.
Until one day, Lu Xun saw her kill with his own eyes.
Her slender, jade-white fingers wiped the blood spattered across her face. At last, she raised the dagger that had once slit a wolf's throat for him to see.
"How unfortunate that Your Highness saw that."
"I wonder, Your Highness, do you still remember this blade?"
--
"She is a bleeding sword, both soft and sharp."
(From Fire: Rumi's Lyric Poems)
Reader's Guide:
1. One-on-one romance, happy ending;
2. A sweet-faced, dark-hearted, theatrically gifted assassin x a sharp-tongued, soft-hearted, tsundere crown prince;
3. Fictional dynasty with original worldbuilding.
Theme: In darkness, journey toward the light
