When Snow Falls on the White Clouds and Gray Dogs

[Two brothers' parallel revenge arcs + orphan of a massacred family and daughter of an enemy + contrasting identities + three escalating betrayals + unflinching tragic beauty] In the third year of the Tongguang era of the Sui Dynasty, the Xie family was wiped out by the Pei, Gu, Zhao, and Zhou families, who joined forces over accusations of treason. The family's ten-year-old second son, Xie Wuyang, and his elder brother, Xie Wugou, narrowly escaped. Xie Wugou assumed the name Shen Bujie and entered the court, vowing to clear the family's name from within. Xie Wuyang took the name Wu Yang, lay low for three years, and became a tycoon while waiting for his chance to take revenge. In the sixth year of the Tongguang era, twenty-year-old Wu Yang reunited with Gu Feiwan, the eighteen-year-old legitimate daughter of the Gu family's second branch. She was the girl he had rescued at a lantern festival when he was eight, but after witnessing the massacre, she had been so frightened that she fell into the water and lost her memory. Unaware of each other's true identities, the two quickly fell in love, but danger lurked beneath their sweet romance. Ding Sheng, Gu Feiwan's personal maid, betrayed her by informing on her, leaving her poisoned with a deadly toxin. Worse, Wu Yang's misunderstanding led him to believe Gu Feiwan was his enemy, while his elder brother Shen Bujie dealt a devastating blow to the Gu family in pursuit of revenge, tearing their relationship apart. Three years later, Xie Wuyang, now a general, reunited with Gu Feiwan at a palace banquet. With the realm in crisis and the emperor holding the reins, the three were forced to join forces. Just as every misunderstanding was cleared up, Aunt Zheng's final letter revealed the full truth behind the memory loss and poisoning. On the very night the Xie family's name was cleared, Gu Feiwan succumbed to the accumulated poison and died in Xie Wuyang's arms...