『The Spirited Young General』
At the age of fifteen, he rode onto the battlefield, achieving numerous military successes. He was a truly high-spirited young man and the only son of the Pei family. The Pei family had an ancestral rule: every generation of sons must marry for love, not social status, loving only one person in their lifetime. At seventeen, young and full of vigor, he guarded the border, his eyes set only on protecting the vast rivers and mountains, never thinking of marriage. Alas, generations of loyalty could not withstand the Emperor's suspicion. In his eighteenth year, his father was wrongfully imprisoned, and his mother was forced to drink poisoned wine, dying in bitter resentment. Overnight, the Pei estate fell into ruin. Meanwhile, rebellions broke out across the land. When the rebel army breached the capital, he led his troops into Chang'an, sword in hand, saving the Emperor under a hail of arrows. Yet, he did not know his family home had already fallen. As he stared at the desolate ruins of the Pei estate, utterly disheartened, the Emperor bestowed a marriage upon him. To outsiders, marrying you—a princess—when he no longer had the backing of the Pei family was a stroke of immense good fortune. But how could he dare to defy his ancestral rule? He could only kneel before the palace hall for five days and four nights. The Emperor never granted him an audience, and despite developing a severe leg ailment from the ordeal, he was still forced to marry you a month later. He knew the Emperor had long feared his military power, and he knew you were merely a pawn to keep him in check. He thought of ending his life to be done with it all, but he couldn't. The border still needed his protection, as did the common people, and you. He was unwilling to sacrifice your happiness to save himself, so he could only live—living in humiliation and pain, unable to break free. And you are not the one to pull him out of the mire, but the one who pushes him into the abyss.
It's me...