Synopsis
[A humble princess of a conquered steppe clan x a possessive, obsessive emperor]
Qi Lingyi is as cold as the bright moon and as icy as frost. Three years ago, he was ordered to bring the tribes of Mobei under imperial control. He feigned affection, toyed with a foreign princess, and finally achieved his goal before leaving her behind.
Three years later, circumstances have changed, and his former enemy has ascended the throne.
Unexpectedly, women from the foreign tribes of Mobei are selected to enter the palace.
The princess from back then is among them, though no one knows what she intends.
Those who offer their hearts meet a bitter end. Once bitten, Jiya is twice shy. When she returns to the capital and sees the man who abandoned and deceived her, she vows not to look back this time.
For three years, Qi Lingyi has tossed and turned, unable to forget the grasslands of Mobei.
He waits only to return after ascending the throne and find the bluebird of the grasslands, so they can sail through the rest of their lives together.
On the eve of the Little New Year, the new emperor hosts a palace banquet and specifically requests a song and dance performance for her to take the stage.
He agonizes over what to do, unable to decide. But when the performer removes her mask, he discovers it isn't her at all. She's been avoiding him.
Halfway through the drinking, the new emperor lowers his eyes and falls silent in thought before finally calling someone over.
But the person who comes keeps their head bowed. They ask everyone else, but not him: "It's been so long since what happened back then, and this lowly servant has already married."
Silence falls all around them.
For the first time, the cold-hearted emperor has no reply. His face darkens, and the cup in his hand crashes to the floor, sending ripples through the room.
Both leads are each other's only partners, 1v1, a lovers-reunited story
New novel coming soon: "The Man Who Forced Me to Love Him Has Amnesia"
She wakes up to hear that the young heir of the Duke's manor has suffered an accident and lost his memory.
Gu Lianjun is overjoyed. Ever since she was forcibly dragged away from her cousin, she's been imprisoned in his outlying residence and wantonly mistreated for three years. At last, Heaven has eyes. That scoundrel Yu Huai'an has suffered for his wickedness and lost his memory in the accident.
She gathers up the hairpins and silver he gave her, puts on a neat dress like an ordinary married woman, and waits for the Duke's manor to send word that she can regain her freedom and go her separate way from the man who stole another man's wife, never to see him again.
But she waits from day until midnight, and the Duke's manor remains so quiet you'd think they'd forgotten she existed.
Gu Lianjun wonders if she should send someone to remind the elders of the Yu family.
Instead, the amnesiac young master stays up in the middle of the night just to see what the woman he had trapped at the cost of his own reputation looks like.
Gu Lianjun stands far away beside the bed. She sees the young master who doesn't recognize her and hears him call to her impatiently.
"Come here! You have no manners. What makes you think you could ever catch my eye?"
Gu Lianjun bites her lip and hesitates for a long time before lifting one corner of her skirt. A golden chain is clearly fastened around her jade-white ankle.
As Yu Huai'an looks at her in turn with surprise, confusion, and disdain, she quietly speaks.
"You personally fastened this chain around my ankle before, saying it was to keep me from changing my mind. But the past is gone, and we're not the same people anymore... Could you let me go, so you can preserve your good name in the capital?"
Perhaps he is moved by her words, because Yu Huai'an really does let her go.
For the first time, Gu Lianjun stands on the bustling streets of the capital, with nowhere to go and no money to her name. But she's overjoyed, thinking of all the wide-open possibilities ahead of her.
She no longer has to wait in a tiny courtyard for that man to return. That alone is worth burning incense and praying to the gods.
After some thought with her not-so-bright little head, she decides she might as well go find her cousin.
Unbeknownst to her, Yu Huai'an, who had once been utterly disgusted with the idea of having a mistress, grows increasingly unhinged. He follows her, spies on her, kidnaps her, and finally returns to his old ways, dragging her back to his estate outside the capital.
Gu Lianjun is on the verge of tears. "Didn't you say indulging in women was against the way of a gentleman?"
Yu Huai'an: "Desire is the flower of the Way, and love is the bud of human nature. The founders of the Way said as much. How could I defy Heaven's will?"
Yu Huai'an wakes up and immediately hears two pieces of bad news.
First, he was in an accident and lost his memory.
Second, before losing his memory, he kept a beautiful concubine in an estate outside the capital, and everyone in his clan, indeed the whole capital, knows how much he dotes on this woman, Gu Lianjun.
After hearing the news, Yu Huai'an laughs. There is no woman who could make him abandon his image as a principled, disciplined gentleman.
He's not some pleasure-seeking rake...
He's certain that woman deliberately seduced and framed him. The self-righteous young gentleman throws off the brocade quilt, puts on his coat, and insists on seeing what kind of enchantress could have brought him to this state.
But the moment he sees her, he feels as if something is crawling in his heart. The more often he sees her, the stronger the feeling becomes.
Could he really have fallen for her?
He can't bring himself to believe it, so he lets her leave. But...
Who could have guessed that the first thing she does after leaving is go find her cousin!
By every measure, how could a man who abandoned her possibly take her back? Still, out of the kindness of his heart, he can't bear to see an old acquaintance fall into hardship. So Yu Huai'an decides it would be better to bring her back and keep her by his side, where he can look after her himself.
Theme: Everyone deserves happiness.
