Synopsis
The year Lu Ling first met Wei Chi, she was fifteen.
Snow covered Mount Li, and Wei Chi, like a sturdy pine in the forest, captured all her attention.
For years afterward, Lu Ling traveled between Xiping and Chang'an. Beyond the flash of blades, she kept her devoted heart hidden beneath her saddle, carefully offering it to Wei Chi.
That early autumn, trapped in a rebellion with no way out, Wei Chi was the last person Lu Ling could think of.
Nearly despairing, she wrote down her final arrangements in a letter and entrusted them to Wei Chi, far away. But even as countless arrows pierced her and she died a horrible death, she never received a single word from him.
As a daughter of the Lu family, taking her father's and brothers' place as commander and dying on the battlefield defending Xiping would have been a death well earned. Dying beneath a rain of arrows in a rebellion born of infighting was her own fault.
And, caught between those two deaths, she experienced both.
Everything Lu Ling had was cruelly snatched away by the executioner called Fate. Only at the moment of her death did she finally understand that demanding what was never meant to be yours is as pointless as courting attention.
She had never had Wei Chi, so naturally she could not lose him.
The world is full of absurdities, but Lu Ling thought dying and then returning to life three years later was the most absurd of all.
Once a military commander, she now became Xue Fuying, a newly appointed palace attendant serving the empress. With everything starting over, she wanted to leave the past behind and focus on uncovering the truth behind the rebellion in Xiping.
But Heaven did not grant her wish. The more she tried to avoid the past, the more tangled connections she found hidden within it.
If everything could be used, including herself, then perhaps using Wei Chi was not out of the question.
Rumor had it that the father and son of the Pingzhao Marquis's household were at odds. The year the eldest daughter, Wei Yi, died of illness, the heir, Wei Chi, broke with his family completely and volunteered to join the army, stationed in Xiping.
He was gone for three years.
To help the Third Prince return to court, Wei Chi forced himself to return to Chang'an despite his injuries and attend a banquet at Xingqing Palace.
After three years apart, he was startled to find a new palace attendant at the empress's side.
He gazed at Xue Fuying, his heart pounding like a drum.
Her eyes were dim and lifeless, yet every move she made carried the shadow of someone who had died and was now beyond his reach.
Perhaps his heart moved his body. When Xue Fuying, dressed in a single thin garment, fell into the pond while rescuing a princess, Wei Chi felt his heart seize. He crossed the boundary of the inner chambers and pulled her out himself.
Soaked through, Wei Chi stared at Xue Fuying's pale face and mistook her for someone else for the first time.
"This Palace Attendant Xue is from the Xue family of imperial censors. The empress favors her, and I hear she's already been promised in marriage to Pei Ji, the newly appointed Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial. A perfect match, wouldn't you say?"
A perfect match.
Why did those words sound so grating?
An old matter reopened the Lu family's case, and storms gathered over the court.
Wei Chi waited in the shadows for the perfect moment to present all the evidence he'd gathered in Xiping over the years and become a loyal subject of the future emperor.
But as he stirred up the political waters, he discovered that someone had stepped alone into his trap.
Lu Ling caught the unexpected guest who had climbed in through her window after dark. Beneath the dim lamp, her gaze was sharp, no longer weak and docile as before.
"General Wei, why do you keep coming here in the middle of the night?" She was certain of the answer, but still pretended not to know.
Until he said it himself: "I want the last letter Lu Ling ever wrote to me."
Calmly playing the role of Xue Fuying, Lu Ling curved her red lips into a radiant smile. "What a mad thing to say. Where am I supposed to find a dead person's letter?"
Only a pair of eyes could be seen on the figure half-hidden in the night.
The long-standing coldness cracked like ice, revealing the grief beneath.
Lu Ling died in the autumn of the thirteenth year of Taicheng, beneath an exceptionally heavy snowfall.
When Wei Chi found her, her body was kneeling amid smoke and blood, with no one to claim it.
The thick stack of letters in his arms was like a scorching brand, torturing his heart without end.
The year Wei Chi fell in love with Lu Ling, it snowed too.
His half-brother had set him up, intending to take his life during the imperial hunt.
Half his chest and abdomen had been torn open by a tiger, his flesh a bloody mess. At the brink of death, Lu Ling rode up and shot the beast dead with one arrow.
One arrow had bought him his life.
"No need to thank me. I'm Lu Ling."
The girl's fearless bearing was carved into Wei Chi's heart.
After Lu Ling died, Wei Chi's old wounds ached through every night.
There were many practitioners of witchcraft in Xiping. Wei Chi searched everywhere for ritual masters, performing rites for three years and staining his hands with blood through endless killing, all to bring her back to life.
Fortunately, his wish came true.
1. A devoted 1v1 HE: the snow of Beiling, who has locked away her heart, versus the stone who will stubbornly pry open the door to her heart and wait for his wife.
2. An unconventional return to life in another person's body. No cheating in any sense of the word.
3. Also known as: "I Never Said What I Felt, and My Wife Died, So I Cried So Hard"; "Reborn as a Palace Attendant"; "I Found Out My First Love Loved Me After I Died"; "You're Such a Blockhead"; "I'm Here for Revenge, Not Romance"; "Extra! General Wei's Favorite Thing Is Being the Other Man"; "How Is He Better Than Me?"; "He's Better Than You in Every Way."
4. The author excels at last-minute, before-midnight writing marathons. Updates daily, six days a week, unless something comes up. If it does, I'll take a day off.
Theme: Believe in science.
