Pearl in Her Bosom

[A ruthless female spy who destroys flowers x a decisive young general]

When Qi Yun first met Shen Huaizhu, he thought her frail and slender, like a carefully tended flower caught in a raging storm, too delicate to withstand the world in chaos.

But he didn't think he would go soft on her. A princess who had raised an army and carved out a territory for herself had willingly entered his game. There was no way he would let one of his pieces leave the board.

So he kept her by his side, crossing through smoke and flames and over seas of corpses as they traveled a treacherous road. Fortunately, she wasn't as fragile as he'd imagined. Watered by blood and rain time and again, she only bloomed more beautifully.

He thought perhaps he could move the piece off the board, take the flower into his arms, and protect her for the rest of her life.

He thought it, and he did it. But when Jinque Gate fell, a sharp blade stabbed into his back. The gentle face he remembered appeared before him, but its expression was cold and indifferent, a look he'd never seen before.

He fell into the blood and filth, watching her sit high on her horse and disappear into the dust before his eyes. She said, "Until we meet again."

So she hadn't been a delicate flower. She was a sharp blade.

-

In the dark days and nights after being thrown into Qingya Valley, Shen Huaizhu thought countless times of the look in Qi Yun's eyes when she betrayed him.

So wounded. So disbelieving.

Warm, sticky blood splashed from the sharp blade onto the back of her hand. Her brows set with resolve, she pulled out the knife with a trembling hand and seized the military tally from his arms.

He didn't resist again. He sank into the pool of blood.

Shen Huaizhu didn't dare look back at him. She lied that her master's troops were on their way, buying him a slim chance of survival.

She didn't regret it, even if he would hate her forever.

Afterward, Shen Huaizhu finally gained her freedom. In her frail, ailing state, she fled the pursuit of the master she once served.

In her panic, she missed a step and tumbled beneath the feet of a patrol marching through a military camp.

They dragged her before the commanding officer. She lifted her head and met the familiar yet unfamiliar eyes that had appeared in her memories alone for years.

He stared at her coldly, grinding out her name through clenched teeth: "You dare come back."

Shen Huaizhu gave a bitter smile at the sky. What a tangled fate. Truly, a tangled fate.

-

Reading guide:

1. One-on-one pairing, both leads' first time, happy ending.

2. Fictional setting, no need to fact-check.

3. The plot serves the romance.

_

The Same Boat's Journey synopsis:

-A solitary girl who hides her hatred and bears it alone x an unruly boy who grows for love

-Young love, mutual pining

The Chancellor's residence framed the Marquis of Shun'an's family, and the whole family was executed. The Empress Dowager spared their only daughter, Ji Yao. After being forced into slavery, she escaped that night, only to be killed by bandits.

The world didn't know whether to laugh or sigh. No one realized that the person standing before them was clearly Ji Yao, whose appearance had not changed at all, except for the phoenix-feather mark between her brows, which had never belonged to her.

Even Ji Yao thought it absurd. That night, a Daoist had given her a finger's worth of guidance. With a drop of blood at her brow and a sheet of yellow talisman paper, a mark appeared that made everyone fail to recognize her. They knew her only as A Tan, a maid in the Chancellor's residence-

She entered the Chancellor's residence in broad daylight, plotting to kill Chancellor Xue and avenge the Ji family.

She never expected to be assigned to Xue Cinian, the spirited young man who had once shared a bowl of wine with her in the snow and called her by her childhood name.

_

After the entire Marquis of Shun'an's household was imprisoned, Xue Cinian knelt in the rain all night.

As dawn approached, his father sent someone to ask him why.

Why? He struggled to lift his eyes in the rain, looking through the endless sheets of water toward the figure inside the window, the one who held all the power.

Perhaps it was the bowl of sweet wine that had warmed his heart amid the deep winter snow. Or the New Year's greeting written on a gold-flecked red strip, special to her alone. Or perhaps it was the way she had looked at him beneath a river of stars, amid glowing mountains and rivers, and said earnestly, gently, and firmly, "Xue Cinian, you really are wonderful."

He bent down and knocked his head against the ground, blood staining the stone steps. He offered no explanation, saying only, "Please, Father."

No one answered him.

He collapsed in the rain, exhausted. Through his fading awareness, he saw his father stop beside him and look down from above. "If you can earn the ear of the throne, why beg me?"

Later, just as his father had said, Xue Cinian built up the influence he needed and set out on his official career.

He went to Silver Lake once more.

The night was still, with slanting wind and fine rain. The once carefree young man, the center of attention and surrounded by people, was now desolate and alone, seated beneath the boat. Damp mist washed over him. He raised his face toward the darkness and silence around him and said softly, "But Ji Yao, there is no light tonight."

_

He would make a name for her. He would climb the highest peaks for her.

-

Theme: Home is where the heart finds peace.