Song of the Southern Countryside

[This novel is complete.]

The Empire's Jewel, Princess Wei, is unwilling to accept her fate.

Her uncle launches a surprise attack on Longcheng, and Brother Qubing fights alone,

but she can only be confined in the palace, then married off after her coming-of-age ceremony to a nobleman's son who loves someone else.

General of the Hussars Huo Qubing is downhearted.

He thought that offering the empire as his betrothal gift would let him marry the woman he loved,

but who could have guessed that the imperial edict ordering him to go to war would arrive alongside another decree granting her in marriage to someone else?

The chapter title comes from Feng Yansi's "Nanxiangzi: Drizzle Soaks the Shimmering Light"

Drizzle soaks the shimmering light; year after year, fragrant grass grows alongside my sorrow.

Mist shrouds the phoenix tower, where endless troubles remain. All is hazy. The mandarin-duck quilt and the phoenix mirror leave two hearts in anguish.

My soul drifts wherever it will. I wake to willow fluff scattered across the embroidered bed.

My faithless love does not come, and the door is half-closed against the slanting sun. I shed a few lines of tears for the spring I have lost.

P.S. The woman the male lead loves is the heroine.

P.P.S. The ending does not follow historical events.

Premise: Prepare for trouble in good times, and grow tenaciously through adversity.