On New Year's Eve in the third year of Yuanhe, Cen Jiqiao had a dream.
She dreamed she was gathering Xu Yanxing's body in a snowstorm.
She woke the next morning, thinking it absurd.
How could that bold, freewheeling heir to a noble house ever have anything to do with an orphan like her, who followed the rules and only wanted to live in peace?
One look at him from afar was enough to tell her they were on different paths.
But the dreams came one after another, tormenting her for days in a haze of half-truths and confusion, until they abruptly ended on the day Xu Yanxing's entire clan was imprisoned.
A Qiao, an orphan who had always kept her head down and never dared make a single wrong move, sat alone by candlelight late into the night, then ventured out into the raging snowstorm.
The prison cell was dark and damp. Clutching the bloodstained iron shackles on his shoulder blades, she asked the young heir, who could not even die as he wished, to honor an unfulfilled promise.
"Xu Yanxing, I want to live a different way."
To hell with a quiet, safe life. To hell with walking on eggshells.
She wiped the dried blood from the corner of his eye.
"Would you be willing to try living on with me?"
1. 2024.03.07
Theme: Do not yield to fate until it offers up a reward worth accepting.
