[Huo Qubing] A Pure Heart

The main story is complete, with a happy ending. Read with confidence.

After a family upheaval, Guan Yueyao had no choice but to cross the ocean with her mother and move to Japan. She thought it would be a fresh start, but instead she ran into school bullies.

That was fine, though. She wasn't good at studying, but she could fight. She beat the nasty kids who tried to bully her until they were crying for their mommies.

She barely made it through a couple of classes before she had already "won them over with virtue" and become the big sister of the local delinquents.

But this wasn't what she wanted. She didn't like it here. She wanted to go home.

The good news: she really did return to China.

The bad news: she returned to the Han Dynasty.

"I didn't even make my wish at Yonghe Temple, did I?" Guan Yueyao scratched her head, utterly baffled.

Fortunately, she met a guy named Huo Qubing here. They got off on the wrong foot, but soon became close friends.

In her first year, she joined the army in a daze. Step by step, she earned military honors and became a colonel alongside Huo Qubing.

Just as her career was getting started, a serious injury revealed her true gender to everyone.

At court, a minister loudly challenged her: "If all the women in the realm take you as their example, who will weave cloth and manage the household?"

She shot back:

"If letting me lead troops in battle would make all the women in the realm follow suit, leaving no one to manage the household, then let me ask you this: When all the men in the realm see you serving as officials, do they all stop farming and doing business?"

But this time, her defiance was no use. Stripped of her official post and title, she returned to civilian life with nothing to her name.

But just like those little Japanese bullies who had tried to pick on her, they weren't going to make her give in.

She accompanied merchant caravans to the Western Regions to gather information, infiltrated the grasslands to obtain a map of the Xiongnu territory, rescued Zhang Qian, and held the walls of Yunzhong Commandery against the Xiongnu's fierce assault.

The desert winds and sand bore witness to her military achievements. Before Weiyang Palace, a woman was granted nobility and a general's rank for the first time on the strength of her military service.

And in her wake came female military doctors, female palace attendants, and female interpreters.

From then on, women throughout the realm could all leave their inner chambers and stand beside her at court!

Couple: passionate, independent female general x calm, composed military genius.

A powerful pair, one-on-one. Each has their own strengths, and they make up for each other's shortcomings as they grow together.

The heroine isn't a damsel in distress. This isn't a story where the heroine is strong but the hero is even stronger, and she won't turn into a pampered wife after marriage.

As for the romance, Huo Qubing's reply sums it up:

"If A-Yao were a woman, I would marry her. If A-Yao were a man, I would have a taste for men."

Theme: Growing up is a long, one-way journey.