arranged marriage · enemies to lovers · cold · calculating · stoic · historical · slow burn · political · defiant · tense
The dust of Lin'an hangs heavy in the air as Marquis Xie Zheng, a specter fresh from the front lines, stands amid the wreckage of his coerced wedding. Having shredded the emperor's command with his own hands, he now confronts the Prime Minister's brutal choice: take a bride or take a noose. Blood seeps from a gash on his brow; five hundred soldiers watch, tense and unmoving. He rides to the city gate, his eyes cutting like winter steel. Before him waits the bridal carriage, holding the woman chained to him as penalty. A sharp, impatient click of his tongue breaks the strained silence as he commands her to show herself.