Li Ninghui disliked Moha Peiluo from the moment she saw him. He was tall and powerfully built, rough and unruly, with coarse manners. The first time he kissed her, fumbling and without a clue, he scared her half to death.
Li Ninghui had grown up in Chang'an. She liked elegant, handsome scholars, men with poetry and books in their hearts. But her usually kind father, the emperor, accepted a marriage proposal from the grasslands and sent her to the windswept northern frontier.
From the moment she accepted the imperial decree arranging her marriage, she never expected to leave the grasslands alive. In such a harsh place, perhaps she would die young of illness, like the princesses sent to marry foreign rulers in the history books, unable to adapt to the local climate and customs. Among her dowry was fine nanmu wood. She ordered the craftsmen traveling with her to make it into a coffin. She hoped that, when the day came, her soul could return to her homeland.
But when she made this request to Moha Peiluo, he panicked for the first time. He knelt on the ground, leaning against her knees, and repeated through his tears, again and again, "You won't die."
She had thought Moha Peiluo was an unreasonable brute, but he leaned against her knees, weeping as he promised her, "Go back. If going back will make you happy, then go. As long as you live, I will remain loyal to Great Liang forever and never invade its borders."
Moha Peiluo was a ruthless man who had killed his elder and younger brothers, and seized the khan's throne in a bloody struggle. He feared nothing, not even death.
But after marrying the Great Liang princess from the prosperous heartland, he began to fear death, and even injury.
At first, he feared that if he died, the princess would have to marry his younger brother according to the customs of the grasslands. The princess disliked him. If his younger brother were unmarried, perhaps that would be all right; she might even find him more agreeable. But his brother and sister-in-law were so devoted to one another. How could the princess live caught between them?
Later, he feared that if the princess saw his wounds, those eyes brimming with laughter would fill with tears of sympathy.
[Reading Guide]
1. The heroine has someone she loves from afar, but later the feelings between the leads become very mutual and intense.
2. One-on-one romance, both leads are virgins, six-year age gap.
Theme: Cherish peace.
