Down-and-out noblewoman x cold-blooded Embroidered Uniform Guard
Because her father chose the wrong side in a political struggle, the Jiang family was ruthlessly purged after the new emperor ascended the throne.
On the day the Embroidered Uniform Guard came to arrest them, Jiang Yunshi was in her room trying on her wedding dress.
When the door was pushed open, she thought it was her father and happily hurried to greet him.
But when she saw the vivid colors of the visitor's embroidered fish uniform, all the blood in her body seemed to turn to ice.
It was Cui Yun, the chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the current emperor's trusted aide.
He had once been her father's favorite student and a frequent guest at the Jiang family banquets. Her mother praised him as a man of noble character and had even considered taking him as a son-in-law.
Yet this man, so deeply trusted by her father, had abandoned the path of the imperial examinations, ruined his future, and joined the shadowy Embroidered Uniform Guard, becoming a blade in the hands of the powerful.
After making a name for himself, he once came to the Jiang home with lavish gifts to ask for her hand. Her father not only refused, but humiliated him in front of all the servants.
"Even if my daughter, Jiang Yunian, never marries, she will never marry a lackey of the imperial court!"
He had left the Jiang estate that day with a dark expression. Two years later, he returned with the very Embroidered Uniform Guard her father despised most, to confiscate the Jiang family's property.
After her father was imprisoned, her mother fell gravely ill from worry. Her fiancé feared being implicated and couldn't return her betrothal papers quickly enough.
With her mother on the brink of death and no way out, Jiang Yunshi went to Cui Yun for help.
"Please, save my mother!"
Cui Yun lifted her chin and asked with a dark look in his eyes, "What will you give me in return?"
Gazing into his shadowy, deep-set eyes, Jiang Yunshi tearfully slipped off her already flimsy clothes.
"If you'll save my mother, I'll give you anything."
Theme: Fate decides who is meant to be together.
