Completed1.
It was widely known in the capital that Ji Yunchan, the eldest legitimate daughter of Minister Ji, was exquisitely beautiful and gentle, making her an ideal spouse. However, she was already engaged to the Yan family, much to everyone's regret.
Some, unwilling to give up, offered lavish gifts for her hand. Instead of meeting Ji Yunchan, they met her fiancé, Yan Heng.
At the time, Yan Heng stood effortlessly at the center of a group of official's sons, his gaze sweeping over them with a slight, mocking smile. "What, trying to poach my girl?"
Ji Yunchan, hiding nearby, shook her head. Only Yan Heng knew that Ji Yunchan was delicate and difficult to appease, her true nature completely different from the 'gentle' reputation. He took pleasure in coaxing her and fending off those who tried to win her over.
2.
Ji Yunchan was cherished by her family, her every wish granted. She had only two worries: her childhood sweetheart, Yan Heng, and her arranged marriage to him. He had a bad temper and loved to tease people, only truly sweet-talking her when she was genuinely angry, which vexed Ji Yunchan greatly.
Then, the political climate suddenly changed. The Yan family suffered a catastrophe and was exiled to the frontier.
Ji Yunchan was finally free of Yan Heng. At their farewell, she brazenly admitted she had no feelings for him, and that her heart belonged to the brilliant and esteemed Zuiyuan. The always dashing young man's eyes reddened. He fiercely spat, "Ji Yunchan, don't you dare regret this," and then left decisively.
They met again in a snowy, deep winter. By then, Ji Yunchan was a prisoner, and the families who once sought her hand now avoided her like the plague. Dressed in thin clothes, she knelt on the biting cold ground, awaiting her fate.
A pair of cold, hard riding boots appeared before her. Her chin was lifted by a horsewhip. Ji Yunchan looked up abruptly, meeting Yan Heng's indifferent eyes.
"Ji Yunchan, still well, I see." The once dashing young man had become a cold-faced general with countless achievements. Everyone assumed Ji Yunchan would be utterly humiliated in Yan Heng's hands.
Someone, wanting to vent Yan Heng's anger, suggested she be made a military prostitute. Yan Heng mockingly lifted his gaze to her, his tone sarcastic: "Did you and I, perhaps, once have an engagement?"
3.
Ji Yunchan was Yan Heng's childhood sweetheart, the wife his parents had chosen for him, the moonlight he cherished in his heart, and also the final straw that pushed him into the mud. The frontier was harsh and cold, and he swore to return in glory, even if he had to tie her to his side.
Until that day, the moonlight itself fell into the mud. This is a story of forced possession, marriage before love, and a broken mirror reunited.