When the snow fell, Shen Yuan was kneeling on the tower.
She was wearing a torn wedding dress. The phoenix embroidered with gold thread had half of its wings crooked. The rope was pulled into her wrist. Blood seeped out and dripped on the bluestone bricks, where it was instantly blown dry by the wind. Under the tower were a mass of black soldiers and horses, with torches connected together like a burning river. Xiao Zhi's Xuanjia Army is in the east, and Xiao Yan's Forbidden Army is in the west. The moat in the middle is covered with thin ice, which reflects the light of the fire and breaks into gold and red all over the river.
Shen Yuan looked down at the river. She remembered her mother saying that water was the way to survive.
Shen Chong stood three steps behind her, his voice like a rusty knife: "Yuan'er, don't blame dad."
She didn't look back.
Eighteen years. From the night her mother died, she has been living in other people's chess games - marrying for her sister-in-law, acting as an eyeliner for her father, warming the bed for the regent, and thinking about everyone. But no one has ever asked her: Shen Yuan, do you want it?
The torch burned wildly in the wind.
Shen Yuan raised her head and saw Xiao Zhi's figure rushing towards him from the fire, saw the panic on his face for the first time, saw the sky full of snow and the city full of soldiers - she suddenly smiled.
This smile shocked everyone.
She suddenly broke the rope, grabbed the torch, turned around and lit the gunpowder fuse behind her. The sparks hissed upward, like a golden snake spitting out letters.
"Stop it—"
Her voice split the wind on the entire tower.
"Whoever takes one step forward, I will burn this tower. Everyone will die together."
The firelight illuminated her face. Half of it is tears, half of it is laughter.
