The Road to the Opening Shot

*Female Lead's Perspective:

Ning Ye unexpectedly transmigrates to ancient times and is taken in by an escort agency. Not long after setting out on an escort mission, she suffers the slaughter of the entire agency.

She learns that the massacre was all because of an Immortal Mirror.

The only way to end the conflict is to consecrate the mirror and destroy the demon clan.

But after the mirror is consecrated, it reveals her and another person's images, identifying them as the rulers destined to guide the realm. Knowing she isn't capable of shouldering the responsibilities of a great nation, Ning Ye's first reaction is to quit the team, spend all the savings in her little secret stash before she dies, and retire back home.

The dream is lovely. Reality is cruel.

When her old flame learns that the Immortal Mirror has chosen her and someone else to become the emperors, the former lover turns against the team.

Her close friend discovers the truth about her mother's death and returns to the city to seize power.

Ning Ye is forced to get caught up in it all.

Confronted with her old flame, gone dark,

her trembling hand gives away how much she can't bear to do it.

Her old flame asks, "Did you ever love me? Even for a moment?"

Ning Ye, under the murderous gaze of a fox: (sweating buckets) "I did, but not that much..."

Her old flame smiles, then dies resolutely at her gunpoint.

A living fox can never compete with a dead old flame.

The fox: (putting on a three-foot strip of white silk) I'll hang myself at your doorstep right now and become the cinnabar mole in your heart!

*The Fox's Perspective:

Ning Ye, second-in-command at an escort agency, is a peerless martial artist. After the agency is wiped out, Chun Hu Qing hires her as a bodyguard for the team protecting the Immortal Mirror, paying for her with a bag of gold melon seeds.

As time passes and their journey takes them farther and farther, their "brotherly affection" begins to change.

Chun Hu Qing calmly faces what he thinks is just spring arriving, all things coming back to life, and the season when animals get, well, busy.

But then his companions grow increasingly tender toward Ning Ye, the city lord's daughter sets out to find a husband, and a male courtesan eagerly pursues her. Chun Hu Qing finally breaks.

After one of his misjudgments puts everyone in danger, Chun Hu Qing rescues them and unexpectedly learns that the person who had tormented him with doubts about whether he was gay is actually a woman. His repressed feelings erupt all at once. Using his own looks as bait, he deliberately seduces her, only for her to keep refusing to take responsibility.

Chun Hu Qing: (gritting his teeth, but a master of coy flirtation) You like my face and want my body, don't you? I'll give you every heavenly treasure in my cave. From today on, you're only allowed to fool around with me!

Ning Ye: ? Are you sick? Go get treated at the vet!

[Read the following content warnings]

* HE ending / not a wish-fulfillment story / chaotic logic

* Both characters are each other's first and only / gender-bender romance

* Mountains of authorial headcanons / plot-focused

* No character is perfect

Theme: Rebuilding order in the human world