Summary
Abandoned in a remote border town because her family considers her too sickly to matter, twelve-year-old Wang Pan expects to die alone. Instead, she meets Zhao Heng—a wounded, penniless fool who has just been discarded by the sweetheart he devoted his life to—and the two of them climb into neighboring graves. Neither succeeds in dying. Five years later, Wang Pan is the town’s formidable coroner and Zhao Heng a battle-hardened officer who still insists they are sworn siblings. Between an arrogant suitor, a returning heroine who believes fate belongs to her, and the revelation of Zhao Heng’s royal birth, Wang Pan must convince the most devoted man alive that the home they built together was never a consolation prize.