A gentle, caring, obliviously straightforward loyal puppy | A cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside, highly skilled martial artist and "stone-faced" assassin
A slow-burn story about a steady, enduring companionship
A little sweetness and warmth, quietly blossoming amid a turbulent martial world
She was once an assassin who made people tremble at the mere mention of her name:
She vaulted over rooftops, accompanied by drifting clouds, while the west wind scattered fallen blossoms.
A graceful silhouette in black, a stern face, and only her blade could speak for her.
A thousand years ago, the Seeking-Self Sword and the Soul-Calling Pearl were born together and bound to one another. A thousand years later, their reincarnations met as the spiritual treasures began to resonate. A red mole over her heart and a sword-shaped scar on his palm responded in unison, binding their fates together from then on.
She fought through flashing blades and bloodshed, reborn from the dead.
He brought pots and pans, and offered a helping hand in the snow.
Others gossiped:
"That girl... doesn't look very gentle!"
"How can a handsome, capable young man like him have ended up with her?"
Shen Qingyue:
My wife has a stone face. She's simply composed.
She's cold-blooded. She's just warm on the inside.
She's taciturn. But when she speaks, she gets straight to the point.
She's born cold-hearted. Deep down, she's simply devoted.
She's violent and scarred, all because she's protecting her frail husband: me.
She's long-haired and slender-waisted, can do flips and sweep out an opponent's legs.
She's nimble, and with a little effort, she can even look rather pretty.
All in all, you don't understand how wonderful she is!
[Setting]
An alternate-history martial world, with mountains of invented lore. No need to fact-check or look too deeply into it.
The martial world has the Cloudbreak Pavilion, which offers a thousand gold for a life, gathers villains from across the realm, and specializes in assassination. Its sharpest blade is a girl known by the codename Ink Shadow. The pavilion's elders found her when she was six. They fed her blade with blood and trained her swordplay through pain. She never left a murder victim alive, yet never forgot her own name.
In a small town in Jiangnan, Shen Qingyue became a wandering master's disciple and learned to cook exceptionally well. From then on, he too had a place in the martial world's culinary scene. Before his master left on a long journey, he gave Shen Qingyue a wooden plaque carved with the words "Know the Taste" and said, "People's hearts are hidden in the flavor. Warm the stomach, and you can warm the heart."
Legend says that spiritual treasures have been bound together for a thousand years. The Seeking-Self Sword can reveal the human heart and cut through illusion, while the Soul-Calling Pearl can gather souls and warm spirits.
But so many years have passed that everyone who ever saw the treasures has long since turned to dust. The legend became a tale dismissed by storytellers as "unbelievable" and gradually faded away. The descendants who guarded the pearl's spirit and the sword-forging families who made its scabbard also vanished from the world.
In this life, the sword's spirit resides within Shen Qingyue, a young man from Jiangnan. He has become a cook who smiles amid the bustle of everyday life, yet often dreams at midnight of a long sword shimmering with flowing light.
The pearl's spirit is hidden in the bones and blood of the orphan Ink Shadow. She has become an assassin amid the flash of blades, and a faint red mole marks the left side of her chest: the imprint of the Soul-Calling Pearl...
When the sword and pearl awaken, she asks him through her tears, "Can you tell whether the instinct of the sword protecting the pearl is controlling you, or..."
Before she can finish, Shen Qingyue pulls her tightly into his arms. "A Yan, I really do love you! You must remember: Qingyue loves you..."
Theme: The bond between the sword and pearl spirits, and finding a home in the warmth of everyday life. When the glittering world has faded, I'll stay by your side in solitude.
