From the Start, I Clung to Huo Qubing's Coattails and Worked for Him

A tsundere, pure-hearted young war god and general x a brave, resourceful, unhinged abandoned princess [A similar upcoming novel: Kill That Soothsayer, the first female lord of the Han Dynasty x an unruly, unyielding great general, Xu Fu x Han Xin. Synopsis at the end]

There are three steps to winning over young Huo Qubing.

First, get into a fight with him when you meet so you catch his attention. Second, work for him. Third, give him candy, gradually taking over his heart.

There is only one step to winning over adult Huo Qubing.

Return to his side and stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

The day Yin Chen first met Huo Qubing was Guyu, the Grain Rain solar term.

All things vied to flourish in spring, and the east wind swept by.

The young man rode a fine horse. Holding a long saber, he lifted her chin with its tip. His voice was cold, as if all the chill of winter had melted into his words. "What qualifies you to negotiate with me?"

Yin Chen held out a bloody head to him. "My lord, do you think this is enough?"

After making it back alive to her homeland, Yin Chen went alone to Chang'an to investigate the disappearance of her maternal aunt, Yi Shuo, two years earlier.

The moment she set foot in Chang'an, the hand of fate turned the world upside down. A carefully laid net waited for her arrival.

Empress Wei said she looked like someone from the past. Lady Wang said her face would bring her disaster. Chen Ajiao, the infamous former empress, called her daughter.

All these strange occurrences stemmed from a royal secret buried fifteen years ago.

As she gradually uncovered the past, she glimpsed a world where human life was as worthless as grass under the struggle for imperial power.

Fortunately, the young man named Huo Qubing was always at her side, reaching out to her with determination. "Miss, could you learn to love yourself first, and then love me?"

He was a wastrel, a heaven-sent prodigy, and a General of the Cavalry who made the Xiongnu tremble. He was also the young man who taught Yin Chen to save herself and gave her back to herself.

"I was rotten and withered, on the verge of falling to ruin. Your love gave me flesh and blood, and helped me stand again."

She bewitched him, teased him, won him, and lost him.

He was the light of day she glimpsed while hidden in the darkness.

Huo Qubing thought Yin Chen was the most disagreeable person under Heaven. She was sharp-tongued and acted boldly, with no logic or method.

At first, he only wanted to use her.

But the girl was like the fiercest flood in the world. She was like a cat, like a fox, like a breeze that shyly yet boldly caught hold of his sleeve, like a blue bird skimming over a mountain ridge. She stirred ripples in the still lake of his heart.

When he came to his senses, Yin Chen had already taken over his heart without him noticing.

As he glimpsed her carefree past and her most sorrowful memories in dreams again and again, he resolved to lead her out of her nightmares.

He said, "No one in the world calls you Chuang Chuang anymore. I'll call you that."

He said, "Chuang Chuang is no caged sparrow. She is a free blue bird from Nanyue. My wish is for Yin Chen to be free forever."

Yet the girl as free as the wind returned to his side, willing to submit in his hands. "I have a deal to propose, General. If you want a young lady's sincere love, you must trade your own sincere love for it. This is the fairest deal in the world."

To him, she was a girl without equal, a spell that willingly banished herself and sank into a dream.

She was the other half of his flesh and bones. Only when they were pieced together could they form a complete self.

He had never lost in his entire life, yet he was willing to lose to Yin Chen alone.

Character snippets:

Huo Qubing at first: "Miss Yin is the most disagreeable person under Heaven."

Huo Qubing later: "Chuang Chuang hasn't paid attention to me for a whole moment. Does she not love me anymore?"

Yin Chen at first: "Colonel Huo has a fine waist."

Yin Chen later: "The old saying is right. People with strong waists have great stamina too..."

*A snippet about the older generation:

The top item on Chang'an's trending gossip list lately: A rundown of the fifteen-year love-hate relationship between the former empress and the current empress.

Chen Ajiao and Wei Zifu were busy listening to other people's gossip when they realized they were the subject of it. They both looked up at Yin Chen.

Yin Chen raised her hands in surrender. "Could you two hear me out? I really didn't spread rumors about you!"

Chen Ajiao blinked innocently. "I know. I spread them."

"?" Why are the people of Chang'an so unhinged?

Reader's guide:

1. The story generally follows the historical timeline, but everything else is fictional. There will be two endings.

2. A touch of an ensemble cast.

3. The spells, intoxicating incense, dreams, and similar elements in this story are fictional.

4. The form of address used for women in this story comes from "Three Songs of Joy, Part One": "A virtuous maiden, when her hair was in buns, was called a young sister-in-law. Her beauty was like a flower at the start of spring. Who could see her and not love her?"

-----------Upcoming novel-----------

Next up: Kill That Soothsayer

An honest, brilliant female lord who cannot lie VS an unruly, stubborn hedgehog of a war god and great general

Xu Fu was born in the year Qin unified the six states.

She was extraordinary from birth and could see everyone's fate. Her only flaw was that she could not lie and could only tell the truth.

"Father, this person will die of..."

Her father was alarmed and hurriedly stopped her. "Fu, don't talk nonsense."

Later, just as she had predicted, the Qin Dynasty fell, and Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose in revolt.

In her life, she witnessed the sweeping lives of many people: the First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Gaozu, Xiang Yu and Yu Ji, Empress Lu, and Emperors Wen and Jing. She was a traveler sailing past this stretch of history. Heaven let her see everyone's fate, but did not let her see her own reflection clearly.

She once sang and drank warm wine with the Three Outstanding Heroes of the early Han Dynasty.

She had seen the rise and fall of heroes in chaotic times, the rival powers vying for supremacy amid the smoke of war, the birds gone and the fine bows put away, ambition and slaughter, and common people dying by the roadside as night fell.

Only then did she suddenly understand that seeing these people's fates was not a blessing. It was, in fact, a most heartbreaking punishment.

When Xu Fu first met Han Xin, he had fallen into the dirt. She looked at the young man, who was like a hedgehog, and saw the wariness in his eyes. In that glance, she saw him commanding battlefields and stirring up the world in the future, and also saw his final fate: bleeding to death within the palace walls.

She reached out to him.

At the time, the young man was full of arrogance and violence. He did not accept her kindness. He climbed out of the mud, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, and warned Xu Fu quietly, "If you tell anyone what happened today, I'll kill you."

Xu Fu leaned closer. Her clear, limpid eyes brimmed with laughter. "Sure. Then you must remember me. My name is Xu Fu. I live in Mingci Pavilion, Wen County, Henei. If you come looking for me, throw a pebble in the northwest corner of the courtyard to knock on the window facing south, then imitate a nightingale's call three times. I'll know it's you."

Han Xin gave her a disdainful look and thought, This person is crazy.

Of course, he was the craziest of all.

He walked all the way from Huaiyin, wearing through several pairs of shoes and traveling hundreds of miles to Wen County. After wandering around for a long while, he finally picked up a pebble and knocked on the girl's window.

From that moment on, he spent his whole life chasing after her.

Later, Xu Fu wanted to save him. She tried again and again to change his fate of dying in bloodshed within the palace, but through a twist of fate, she ended up forging the blade that killed him with her own hands.

Many years later, Xu Fu suddenly dreamed of the past.

Zhang Liang said, "Junior Sister Xu, it has been a long time."

She turned back in anguish and saw that the young man had grown white-haired.

Han Xin raised his head proudly, then turned to look at her. Tenderness still remained in his eyes. "In this life, it is enough for me to have Xu Fu as a confidante."

She watched him fall into the dirt, rise to the heights, stand proudly among the branches, and bleed upon Weiyang Palace.

He raised a hand and wiped away the tear at the corner of her eye. "The world misunderstands me and spits on me. Only you understand me, cherish me, and treasure me."

That year, Xu Fu was twenty-four.

That year, he was thirty-one.

She woke slowly, as if she had returned to the day she first met Han Xin.

The girl who had slipped away because she found the banquet boring stood at the mouth of an alley and smiled as she reached out to the young man from the marketplace. "I know you, sir. You are destined to achieve great things."

Theme: She insists on surviving even in desperate circumstances