After being accused of treason, the entire Ji family was executed. Only Ji Mingshu escaped this fate because she was married and no longer lived with them.
Everyone knew the Ji family had been framed, but they all urged Ji Mingshu to let it go: "You can't overturn the verdict. Give up."
Ji Mingshu refused. She would investigate it herself and demand an answer, no matter what it took.
On the day she left her husband's family, her aristocratic-born husband warned her, "Ji Mingshu, once you walk out of the Shen family gates, don't expect to come back!"
Ji Mingshu didn't look back. Through the swirling snow, she headed for the frontier, one step at a time.
For the next eight years, she disguised herself as a man and donned armor, keeping a low profile in the border city where her father and brothers had been buried.
Training, sparring, surprise attacks, defending the city: Ji Mingshu repeatedly found herself in danger, and came close to death more than once.
Every time, someone would tell her, "You can't win. Give up."
But she would always straighten her slender back, grit her teeth, and say, "Again."
Lu Xingyun was born into a family of nobility. In the capital, he could have anything he wanted, but over a petty dispute, he defied his father's objections and ran off to the frontier to serve as a mere soldier.
There, he met a peculiar person.
Though slight and seemingly frail, this person was stronger than anyone else and always had to be first in everything.
They were comrades, but Lu Xingyun couldn't stand him and often picked fights with him.
Until one day, Lu Xingyun was knocked unconscious and captured by the enemy. It was this person who devised a plan to save him.
From then on, Lu Xingyun stopped being antagonistic and treated him exceptionally well.
Everyone thought it was out of gratitude for saving his life. Only Lu Xingyun knew the truth: he felt guilty.
Because while unconscious, he had a bizarre dream.
In it, he pinned his slender, fair-skinned comrade beneath him. Just within reach beneath his hand was an irresistible red mole.
For years afterward, he repeatedly warned himself not to profane his comrade and forced himself to suppress his wicked thoughts.
But one day, he accidentally wandered into the bathhouse and saw the exact same sight as in his dream, on that person's lower back.
In that instant, the desire he'd suppressed for years suddenly grew wild in his chest.
Theme: Justice must be fought for
