The Beauty of Troubled Times, Reborn

Xin Yi was born in the final years of a dynasty, as the first signs of chaos appeared and all corners of the realm stirred restlessly.

The family's lands in Yan Province were rich and strategically well situated. Unfortunately, her father was mild-mannered and mediocre. He had neither the ambition to become a ruler nor the talent to conquer the realm. Being a conscientious local official who kept the people safe was already more than enough for him.

Her younger brother was still small, like a tender bamboo shoot. Xin Yi was frail and sickly, like a flower fading in the wind.

The three of them were on the verge of withering away in the storms of this troubled age.

To protect their peaceful corner of the world, her father in her previous life had gone to great lengths to marry her off to Yanling, the Marquis of Yan who dominated the north.

The Marquis was fierce and formidable, a tiger ruling the land. Yet he was proud and cold. In their three years of marriage, apart from at night, he had never shown her the slightest affection. They were distant as husband and wife.

Xin Yi thought that as long as the Marquis protected the people of Yan Province and spared her family the upheaval of war, that would be enough.

But who could have known that in the autumn of their third year, the childhood sweetheart he had thought dead would return, leaving the already tenuous affection between husband and wife hanging by a thread.

Yan Province was in danger. Xin Yi waited outside the Marquis's room for a day, hoping to persuade him to send troops to its aid.

Instead, his childhood sweetheart came out with a beaming smile and told her that the lord had drunk too much and gone to sleep.

Xin Yi understood the message. Despairing, she left that night by carriage with her household attendants, intending to die alongside her family.

As they traveled past a cliff, she realized that someone had tampered with the carriage. It plunged into the deep ravine with its horses.

At that moment, Xin Yi could only think that the Marquis was cruel, and regret the choice she had made.

When she awoke, she was sixteen again, and her father was about to marry her off to the northern lands.

Xin Yi stopped him decisively, then headed south beneath the spring blossoms, hoping to ally with the Jiang clan of the south and find a chance to survive.

In the Jiang family's peach grove, Xin Yi met eighteen-year-old Jiang Shuo. At the time, his father had not yet died at the hands of the Marquis of Yan, his elder brother's leg was still sound, and he was not yet the deep and imposing southern overlord he would become four years later. He was simply a spirited young general.

He was picking peaches for his younger siblings, his laughter and conversation carrying through the whole grove.

After taking it all in, Xin Yi quietly turned to leave, only to be called back.

"Miss, wait!"

Xin Yi turned around in surprise. The young man hopped down from the tree like a monkey and came to her, holding out a large, rosy peach.

"Would you like a peach? This is the sweetest one on the tree."

Peach leaves rustled overhead as the handsome, valiant young man stood smiling, expectation in his eyes.

Xin Yi froze, unable to bring herself to take the peach for a long time.

Jiang Shuo was born into a prominent Jiangnan family. He made a name for himself young, mastered the art of war, and was undefeated in battle. The Jiang clan he led dominated the south, standing on equal footing with the Marquis of Yan. Yet what people talked about most was not his ability or ambition to unite the south, but his brazen vow...

"In this life, I will cut off your head and marry your wife."

Facing the Marquis of Yan's army, he had brazenly proclaimed these words to the Marquis himself, and the boast spread throughout the realm.

It was also this reckless declaration that made Yanling constantly suspect that something improper had happened between Xin Yi and Jiang Shuo while she was in his captivity. His attitude toward her was then unclear.

Reading guide:

A sweet romance-focused story.

The heroine is not a strong, powerful woman.

Theme: Live toward the light