Unrivaled Splendor

Bright, valiant young woman general * Scheming, ambitious chancellor of an enemy state * Wooden, paternal older top scorer

-Heroine's Version-

Hua Qingqing, Lady of Zhaoyi County, is a spirited young woman who sweeps through enemy ranks after two years of battle. A martial arts prodigy the likes of which the Great Yu Dynasty sees only once in a century, she falls in love at first sight with the enemy state's chancellor during a campaign, then flees in a panic, becoming a laughingstock in both countries.

Her mother hurriedly marries her off to Zhao Yanchi, the newly crowned top scorer of the Yu Dynasty's imperial examination, to silence the gossip.

Unfortunately, the top scorer is a single-minded block of wood, and he displeases the county lady on their wedding night.

Daily lectures from her top-scorer husband about duty to country and family wear Hua Qingqing down. She asks for a divorce, tosses aside her red-tasseled spear, and chooses to retire from the world as a nun on a mountain.

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But halfway up the mountain path, bandits abduct her. When she wakes, she is in an enemy military camp.

Si Yuntan, the Yan Dynasty's chancellor, wears a flowing white robe. Looking at Hua Qingqing, bound hand and foot, he calmly says:

"If you surrender now, I promise you the position of Yan's queen when I ascend the throne one day."

Hua Qingqing: ?!

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She tries every way she can to escape, but fails. Then, through the rolling yellow sand, she sees a solitary figure approaching the camp, unarmed.

Beneath his dust-covered face, the top scorer's eyes are as resolute as a spark:

"Qingqing is my lawful wife. If you want to lay a finger on her, you'll have to step over my dead body first."

-The Male Lead's Version-

As a child, Si Yuntan outwitted powerful ministers and killed the regent with his own hands, then helped the new emperor of the Yan Dynasty ascend the throne.

His path to becoming the young chancellor was supposed to be smooth, but when he learned that Lady Hua Qingqing of the enemy Yu Dynasty was getting married, he snapped the Buddhist prayer beads a venerable monk had given him.

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According to the rumors, Lady Hua Qingqing was peerlessly beautiful and extraordinarily skilled in martial arts, a young general seen only once in a century. She had fallen in love with him, Si Yuntan, at first sight, but could not have him, and spent every day weeping in misery... Only to turn around and marry the newly crowned top scorer of the Yu Dynasty.

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Si Yuntan had always had a charmed life, but he had never felt such bone-deep hatred. Gritting his teeth, he gave the order to his entire army:

"The enemy county lady Hua has shown herself to be fickle and faithless, a disgraceful woman who abandons one love for another. The people of Yan despise such conduct.

I will capture her and... her."

-The Second Male Lead's Version-

Zhao Yanchi was born a block of wood. He studied like a block of wood, grew taller and more handsome like a block of wood, took the imperial exams like a block of wood, and became the new top scorer overnight thanks to his deep literary talent, also like a block of wood.

Everyone says this year's top scorer is unsmiling, but in truth possesses great wisdom, far above the common masses.

Zhao Yanchi takes a battered bowl from his robes, ignores the onlookers, and woodenly goes down the mountain to fetch a bowl of clear spring water.

His parents were separated from him when he was young, but he still remembers his mother's last words:

"You were raised on food given by a hundred families and water from the mountain springs. Never let down the land beneath your feet."

He never expected that, after he drank that bowl of spring water, his once steady and predictable life would be changed by a beautiful nun in red, full of fiery energy.

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Zhao Yanchi had never given much thought to romance, but fate had other plans, and there was no escaping it.

The newly crowned top scorer of the dynasty gives up his bright future as a marquis and chancellor to marry the county lady laughed at by the whole world for being lovestruck.

Everyone says what a pity.

Only Zhao Yanchi keeps the same wooden expression.

Now that they are married, he will be Hua Qingqing's husband and hers alone for the rest of his life.

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Even if she has never loved him.

Blurb dated 2024.7.27

One-line premise: The legendary story of a noble young lady who goes from princess to general, general to deserter, deserter to nun, and nun to queen, all while facing a harem of love rivals every day.

Theme: Love of country and family