1.
Yin Sui grew up showered with love from her parents and master, raised amid the borderlands' wind and sand, and developed a fiercely unruly temperament.
When she first arrived in the capital, she neither reported for duty nor visited her family. Instead, she casually kidnapped the current emperor's sixth prince as bait, just to lure a bandit gang into the open.
The moment the bandits' blade touched Xue Fuya's neck, Yin Sui hung upside down from a beam, legs hooked over the eaves, and thrust her spear through a man's chest.
Hot blood sprayed across the sixth prince's face.
Hanging upside down like a falcon folding its wings, she shot him a disdainful look as he stared in shock. "Your Highness, do you recognize this red-tasseled spear? It's for killing useless people."
Xue Fuya unhurriedly wiped the blood from his cheek and raised his brows with a smile. "You there... heroine? Next time you kidnap me, could you use a more dignified pose?"
His voice was lilting, as if carefully choosing his words. "Looking up to talk really hurts my neck."
2.
War fires tore through the night above the border city. Yin Sui knelt among the ruins, leaning on her spear, her silver armor shattered. Behind her stood the last stretch of wall that had not fallen.
She thought she could finally fulfill her wish to serve her country and give her battered body in its defense. Then she saw the sixth prince, always considered the most useless of them all, shed every trace of composure. Amid the army and the thundering hooves, he kissed her bloodstained lips.
"Yin Sui..." Xue Fuya pressed his forehead to hers and laughed softly, though his voice was hoarse. "I've lost out."
In everyone's eyes, the sixth prince was a dissolute wastrel who did nothing but compose poetry about the scenery. Now his gaze turned as cold as a blade.
Xue Fuya had never learned martial arts, but he was skilled at playing the world like a game of chess. He wanted nothing in this life but for his general to be safe. Safe and sound.
"I used to want only to stay alive. Then all I wanted was for you to stay alive."
3.
Yin Sui once thought the emperor had finally recognized the loyalty of the Yin family.
It was only later, when she glimpsed a corner of the truth in the study, that she learned the imperial favor her family had fought and bled for was nothing more than a way for him to pave a path to survival above the abyss.
"Every time the general takes the initiative to kiss me, she's crying while she does it."
Xue Fuya glanced at the newcomer, his tone as flippant as ever, though his fingertips were icy. "Anyone who didn't know better would think I was forcing you."
She knocked his hand away. Her throat tightened, but she couldn't bring herself to say a word.
Xue Fuya leaned in, staring into her reddened eyes.
"You're a mighty general in front of everyone else. Why is it that in front of me... all you can do is cry?"
"How much are your tears worth, hmm?"
To Xue Fuya, of course, Yin Sui's tears were worth nothing.
Her tears were worth the lives of the entire Yin family.
Beyond the rainy night, the deadly game was already underway.
And the hand that moved his pieces had just slipped away from the tear tracks on her face.
[Reading guide]
1. Both leads are sexually exclusive, one-on-one romance.
2. There will be conflict and tension early on, with some angst.
3. The relationship develops gradually, with a focus on personal growth.
Synopsis written on April 18, 2025. Screenshot saved.
Theme: Love and hate share a cause, and flaws and virtues coexist
