After Saying Goodbye to My Childhood Friend of Ten Years

[Major content warnings below]

Deng Linfeng had been in love with Qi Xun for many years.

But he was neither as clever as Qi Xun nor possessed of the refined, aloof bearing of those civil officials, as cool and upright as pines.

He was a military man who had earned his skills through a body covered in scars.

So he was content to be a good blade in Qi Xun's hands.

For more than ten years, through spring and autumn, he had never complained.

He had thought he might wait long enough to see the clouds part and the moon appear, but his life held no such promise.

What came first was not Qi Xun's return, but a disaster that struck the Deng family.

Deng Linfeng knelt in the courtyard, with more than two hundred members of the Deng family behind him.

The one who arrived at the head of an army was none other than Qi Xun.

Qi Xun stood before him, holding an imperial decree, lofty and untouchable.

Deng Linfeng thought Qi Xun had come to punish him, but the decree was actually a marriage edict.

It commanded Deng Linfeng to marry into the Dingnan Marquis's household as his male spouse, temporarily safeguarding the more than two hundred members of the Deng family.

Deng Linfeng could accept this outcome. What he couldn't accept was that Qi Xun would be the one to end his barren, unrequited love.

Qi Xun said, "General Xiao Deng, we've been friends, so I have to remind you: one should know when to quit."

So, to everyone's surprise, the hot-tempered General Xiao Deng said only three words.

"Your subject accepts the decree."

He lowered his head to accept the decree, and so didn't see the slight change in Qi Xun's expression or his clenched fingers.

-

Just a few days after the wedding, the political situation took a dramatic turn, and the Dingnan Marquis was thrown into prison.

Once again, it was Qi Xun who came.

Qi Xun demanded that Deng Linfeng cut ties with the Dingnan Marquis, but this time General Xiao Deng stood tall before him.

"Now that we've bowed before Heaven and Earth, my life and death are bound to the Dingnan Marquis's household."

He stared hard at Deng Linfeng, his voice more unsteady than ever before.

"You've known the Dingnan Marquis for only a few days, and that outweighs our thirteen years?"

Deng Linfeng gave a mocking laugh and said to him,

"As you said, Minister Qi, ours was merely a friendship between gentlemen. How could that outweigh the bond between husband and wife?"

*Content highlights:

1. Includes a brief love-triangle confrontation

2. Not a traditional perfect happy ending; somewhat angsty

Theme: Always rely on your own hard work to make a living