Amidst the treacherous and resplendent world of court politics, Mo Xuanwu once encountered a sudden calamity. In that fateful moment, a stranger appeared, as if summoned by destiny itself, and aided him in escaping from the jaws of peril, never once revealing her identity. Though their stations in life were worlds apart, the two journeyed side by side through countless trials, woven with misunderstandings and moments of silent understanding.

In time, he found himself drawn to her, not only for her courage and innate kindness, but for something far deeper, something that stirred quietly in the depths of his soul. She became, in his eyes, a rare treasure he yearned to keep close.

Upon discreet inquiry, he discovered that she was the only daughter of a modest yet upright official — a family known not for grandeur, but for integrity and unyielding principle. This knowledge deepened his admiration, and with it, a quiet resolve.

Then came fate’s cruel jest: the Emperor issued a decree, bestowing upon him a marriage to the very same young woman — a political maneuver to curb Mo Xuanwu’s rising power. Yet none could have foreseen that the seemingly coerced union was, in truth, what he had long desired, both a gift and a trial granted by heaven.

She never knew who the man she was to marry truly was. The imperial edict descended like a decree from the heavens—cold, absolute, and beyond refusal. To her, it was nothing less than a cruel arrangement: to become a pawn in another’s struggle for power, to be wed to a stranger, without affection, without choice.

She was not weak, yet neither was she born to yield. She could not accept a life beside a man she had never met, never once felt her heart stir for. To her, marriage should not be a favor bestowed from on high. And so on the eve of the grand wedding, while the world around her celebrated, she slipped away.

Draped in a coarse traveling cloak, she moved swiftly through the misty streets of the prosperous town she had called home all her life. Dawn had yet to break fully; the sky was still drowsy, a pale blush of light smudged across thin clouds. Head lowered, footsteps cautious yet determined, each beat of her soles echoed the racing of her heart. Every passing gust of wind, every fleeting shadow made her breath hitch.

And yet fate was never so easily outwitted.

At a quiet crossroads, just as she thought she had escaped the gaze of the world, a deep, familiar voice called out from behind her:

“Where is a lady such as yourself heading, dressed like this?”

She froze. Every inch of her body turned to stone. Those words pierced through the morning mist like arrows, striking the heart of memories she thought long buried of a fleeting time that had felt like a passing dream.

Turning slowly, her eyes widened in disbelief. Standing before her was no stranger, but the very man she had once rescued, the man with whom she had shared quiet sunsets and silent nights beneath endless fields of stars.

He stood still as well, his gaze unwavering and deep. Within it was the joy of reunion, but also something unspoken, an undercurrent of emotions long buried beneath the calm surface.

Silence fell like dew on early grass, and for a moment, even the world held its breath. She had yet to realize. The man standing before her… was the very fiancé she was trying to escape.