Synopsis
Princess Changping was married once, when she was fifteen.
At the time, the royal family had not yet found her. She was still the daughter of the prefect’s household, and her surname was Yun. Disaster struck her family: her father died a tragic death in prison, her mother was beaten to death, and her elder brother lost the use of both legs trying to save her. Back then, she felt utterly hopeless, as if the light had gone out of the world.
Someone rode through the night carrying a marriage contract, claiming it was a betrothal her father had arranged for her years ago and could not be reneged on.
So, with her brother as witness, she married Gu Qi.
But the marriage lasted only two years, because she could not bear being deceived.
They met again more than two years later.
By then, she was Princess Changping, restored to her rightful place in the Chu royal family, and a general who had brought down the Qi commander with a single thrust of her red-tasseled spear. He was an envoy sent by Qi to sue for peace. She sat poised in the grand hall without sparing him a glance. He bowed with his hands clasped and said, "This humble envoy, Lan Xiao, pays his respects to Princess Changping. May Your Highness live a thousand years."
Before the princess’s tent gathered talented and handsome men from every corner of the land. Amid the clamorous crowd, he swallowed his bitterness and looked at Princess Changping, who was attended by two refined young gentlemen. Lowering his head, he asked her, "I wonder if Your Highness still remembers the husband you married and then abandoned in Yanzhou?"
"What business do you have, Lord Lan?"
She was speaking to him, but Changping’s eyes were fixed elsewhere. She smiled brightly, the mockery in her voice plain to hear.
"I would give my life to remain by Your Highness’s side and protect you for the rest of your days."
She tossed the luminous wine cup in her hand. Wine spilled across the floor and splashed onto her skirts. With a soft laugh, she said to him:
"Not a chance."
Lan Xiao had a dream. He dreamed that Qi was destroyed by Southern Chu, and that the general leading the army was a princess of Southern Chu who had been lost from home. With one thrust of her spear, she took the head of his emperor brother-in-law. Blood flooded the throne, the palace fell into chaos, and the kingdom was destroyed.
Afterward, he and the other Qi royals were sent to Chu as hostages. Half drunk, she narrowed her eyes at the trembling group of Qi royals, pointed at him, and said, "Send him to my residence."
When Lan Xiao woke, his heart pounded for a long time. He kept recalling the details of the kingdom’s destruction: the white silk used to hang his sister, the head of his nephew Qian'er displayed on the city wall, and the general holding the red-tasseled spear.
He wanted to change all of it, at the very least to protect his sister and Qian'er.
When Lan Xiao awoke from the dream, he was on the road, fleeing his homeland after Qi had spread rumors that he was a traitor who had colluded with the enemy. In the dream, he had trusted the Qi emperor and returned to Qi, only to find that the news awaiting him was that Lan Xiao, the Qi royal uncle, had committed suicide out of guilt.
This time, he wanted to flee in a different direction.
He would make the general’s acquaintance ahead of time and help her with her plans.
But he could never have imagined that this time, he would lose both his heart and his whole self to her.
There was no escape, and he was willing.
From his deceit to her truth.
Theme: Always stand firm in your own truth.