Borderland Moon and Household Schemes: The General's Wife Is No Easy Match

Xie Mengcai, an illegitimate daughter of the Vice Minister of Personnel, is desperate to escape being used as a pawn and married off to a powerful man more than fifty years old. In her haste, she strikes a marriage contract with Cheng Linxu, a frontier army officer returning to the capital to report on his service, who is also being pressured to marry. They agree to pose as husband and wife, then peacefully divorce after a year, each getting what they want and going their separate ways. After the wedding, Xie Mengcai uses her intelligence and caution to establish herself in the crisis-ridden general's residence and keep the household in perfect order. Cheng Linxu, cold in manner and poor with words, is gradually drawn to this woman who appears delicate but is utterly resilient inside. He watches her quietly resolve one domestic crisis after another, and is surprised to discover that she can identify poisons by their smell, helping her evade repeated attempts on her life. While Cheng Linxu is stationed at the border, the two exchange letters. Their first few practical messages gradually turn into everyday accounts of the snow and wind at the frontier and the changing seasons in the capital. As the war intensifies, Xie Mengcai draws on her knowledge of medicinal herbs and fabrics to find ways to send desperately needed supplies to the border troops, becoming Cheng Linxu's most dependable support. The heart Cheng Linxu had frozen over slowly begins to thaw in her care. As their year together nears its end, word reaches the capital that Cheng Linxu has died in battle. The Xie family immediately comes to demand that Xie Mengcai either follow him in death or remarry. Refusing to believe Cheng Linxu is dead, she stands against her family alone and secretly investigates his whereabouts. Just as she is driven into a desperate corner, Cheng Linxu, now a great general, returns through a sea of soldiers with his armor stained red with blood. He shields her behind him and tears up their divorce agreement in front of everyone. "I, Cheng Linxu, will have no wife but you for the rest of my life. Our marriage was false before, but from now on, I stake my life on making it real."