Marrying a Warrior - Chapter 1

During the Lantern Festival, my adoptive brother Li Muzhi locked me inside a burning building. I was reduced to a charred corpse.

My last memories were of Zhao Mo charging into the towering flames, only for a falling beam to break his leg.

After seeing my body, he wandered in a daze for three days. Then, smiling, he drank a cup of poisoned wine.

“A-Yu, don’t be afraid. I’m coming to keep you company.”

He was Great Zhou’s God of War. A brilliant future lay before him, and countless noblewomen would have gladly become his second wife.

Why cling to a wife who had treated him coldly throughout their year of marriage?

The terrible pain in my arm seemed to linger. I came sharply to my senses.

But my arm was whole. None of the agony of death remained.

Only the room’s red decorations, so like the flames that had devoured me, made it difficult to breathe.

“Your Highness, however much you dislike General Zhao, you must at least be civil.”

Nanny Feng was dressing my hair, still trying earnestly to persuade me.

Only then did I see the woman in the mirror.

Bridal robes. Elaborate makeup. Pearls adorning my cheeks.

Beside my temple sat the phoenix hairpin the noble consort had bestowed, a golden tassel hanging from its beak.

Only the livid marks around my neck marred the picture.

Had I… been given another life?

“I know General Zhao is a great hulking man, more frightening than Young Master Li. But you cannot try to kill yourself.”

I remembered.

Li Muzhi had told me General Zhao Mo enjoyed torturing women to death and listening to their cries while he drank.

Then came military reports that he had slaughtered three cities, killing women and children alike, leaving no survivors.

Three days before the wedding, I had tried to hang myself, hoping for a quick end.

How foolish.

In our year of marriage, that celebrated warrior had never so much as raised a blade in front of me.

“With a soldier like him, Your Highness need only coax him a little and soften your manner. There is nothing he will refuse.”

Nanny Feng was right. Zhao Mo was that kind of man.

The misunderstandings and wounds between our first meeting and his death two years later could not be explained in a few sentences.

He had allowed his trusted adviser to malign me and had repeatedly considered writing a letter to divorce me.

I had exploited his forbearance again and again, hurting him to the bone.

Pretending affection, only to wound him with a dagger.

Deliberately missing a family feast, leaving him humiliated.

Only when he died for me did I realize that I did not understand him at all.

If he loved me, why write those divorce letters?

If he did not, why follow me into death?

“Kick the bridal chair’s door! Assert the husband’s authority!”

Sitting in the sedan chair, I remembered my previous life.

Zhao Mo had not kicked the door. He had merely bent and offered me his hand.

Determined to embarrass him, I had hidden a blade in my sleeve and slashed his palm.

He said nothing, gripping the red wedding sash as though nothing had happened.

We had not consummated the marriage. The plain bridal cloth bore no bloodstain.

The next day, everyone mocked Zhao Mo for being cuckolded as soon as he married.

They said the rumors that Princess Heqing loved her adoptive brother Li Muzhi must be true.

Before I could think further, a pair of hands, roughened by years of wielding a blade, lifted the sedan curtain.

I put away the dagger and placed my hand in his.

He had anticipated all the ways I might humiliate him, but not the soft warmth of my touch.

Accustomed to swords and sabers, he was holding a young woman’s hand for the first time.

He paused.

I followed him gently and without resistance.

Zhao Mo shielded me carefully, afraid the children playing nearby might jostle me.

“Everyone said Princess Heqing tried to die rather than marry him. It seems the rumors were false.”

“They make a heavenly pair.”

When all the rites were finished, he helped me into the bridal chamber.

Scarcely had we entered when the door burst open.

“Muzhi! Come and look at your little sister.”

“So beautiful! No wonder you kept her hidden from us.”

Even through the haze of my bridal veil, I recognized Li Muzhi instantly.

He stared fixedly at my scarlet wedding robes.

I remembered that Lantern Festival.

His letter asking me to meet him.

How he had locked me in the Plum Blossom Pavilion and overturned the lamp oil before my eyes.

However I wept and begged, however I demanded to know why he wanted me dead, he said nothing. He merely watched me with gentle eyes.

Watched me perish in the flames.

I shivered and instinctively shrank behind Zhao Mo.

Seeing my fear, Li Muzhi’s usually gentle, composed face betrayed a flicker of anger.

“Brother…”

That darkness passed like a wavering candle flame. His expression became warm again.

His personal attendant, Saohua, brought forward a jade bracelet carved with plum blossoms. Its tangled branches reminded me of the lock on the pavilion, the one I had been unable to break.

“Congratulations on your marriage, little sister.”

Before leaving, he stressed those last two words.

I did not dare take it. Zhao Mo accepted the bracelet for me and offered his thanks.