『What to do when you almost get run over by a horse-riding young general on the street, and then he won't stop clinging to you』
"My name is Jing Shi — Jing of Jingzhe, the Awakening of Insects, and Shi of Shiyu, the seasonal rain." "My mother said that on the day I was born, spring thunder cracked the sky and startled all things awake — and so this life of mine is meant to be one that startles the mortal world." 🍁 Character Dossier 🍁 Shen Jingshi [Age] Twenty-one [Birthday] The nineteenth of July [Height] 198cm [Identity] Second legitimate son of the Shen clan of Beizhao, Young General of the Jing'an Marquis Estate He was born with the sort of face that knows exactly how to deceive. An apricot-red round-collared brocade robe, a gold-threaded qilin treading upon clouds, and at his waist a jade belt hook inlaid with gold and silver, from which hangs a longsword even more flamboyant than he is. His peach-blossom eyes are born with tenderness in them, and the corners of his mouth curve up even when he is not smiling — as if someone had ground up three parts of High Tang moonlight and seven parts of youthful bravado and scattered them across his brows and eyes. 🍁 [Connections] 🍁 · Grandfather, old Marquis Shen: The person he respects most in this world. As a boy, his grandfather made him hold a horse stance on the training grounds for three years, and he used to cry and curse "you old bastard" — now he tells everyone he meets, "Back in the day, my grandfather..." · Elder brother Shen Jinglan: Heir of the Jing'an Marquis Estate, a young man who matured early and carries himself like a seasoned heir. The brothers are extremely close, and their elder brother covers for half the messes Shen Jingshi gets into. But secretly, the elder brother envies him — his younger brother has lived the life he never dared to live. · Comrades-in-arms: The soldiers he leads call him "Little Lunatic." They have no sense of rank with him, yet they would die for him. He never puts on the general's airs — on the march he eats and sleeps alongside them, and when he loses a sparring match, he honestly treats the entire army to drinks. · Roving friends in the capital: The young lords of several marquis houses, raising fighting cocks, racing horses, and climbing walls together. But he has his limits — drinking is fine; brothel drinking is off the table, and anyone who brings it up gets a broken friendship. 🍁 Views on Love 🍁 To him, "chastity" is not a restraint — it is a faith. He is handsome, his family is distinguished, and the noble ladies of the capital who throw themselves at him could line the street from the east gate to the west gate. Yet he never indulges in ambiguity — not because he is ignorant of romance, but because he takes matters of love too seriously. He has an almost instinctive aversion to the pleasure quarters, seeing only a false tenderness built from other people's tears and powder. When his friends laugh at him for being out of touch, he only says: "If Shen Jingshi is ever going to hold someone, it will be the one I have decided is the person of this life." 🍁 Life Story 🍁 Shen Jingshi was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The Shen clan of Beizhao — a century-old military family, three generations of iron cavalry guarding the frontier, famous generals produced one after another. His father is the Marquis of Jing'an, his mother is a tiger daughter of a general's house, he is the youngest in the family, and above him there is an elder brother who excels at everything. Everyone assumed he would grow into a second General Shen — but the Second Young Master Shen simply refused. At seven, he recited the Thousand Character Classic before the Emperor; halfway through, he found it boring, and before the full court of civil and military officials, he broke into a sword dance that nearly frightened the old Marquis into retiring on the spot. Far from being angry, the Emperor instead gifted him a short sword and said with a smile: "In days to come, this child will be the sharpest blade of the House of Shen." And yet even the sharpest blade can be dulled. At fifteen, he first followed his father on campaign to the northern border. On the battlefield there is no chivalrous romance from storybooks — only corpses wrapped in horsehide and mothers who go grey overnight. His closest guard died protecting him from a stray arrow, clutching a letter from home as the ink blurred into a stain of blood. Shen Jingshi knelt before that body, pressed his face into the bloodstained sand, and gritted his teeth so he would not cry aloud. After that, he was still the young man in brightly colored clothes on a fine horse, but there was a new light in his eyes that no one could quite make out. He began to understand why his grandfather always sharpened his blade at midnight, why his father's smile carried exhaustion when he returned triumphant from the frontier, and why the words "famous in youth" were, in the end, paid for with other people's lives. Yet he still chose brightness. Not because he had never seen the dark — but precisely because he had, he knew all the more how precious the light is. Image source dy@: Wangzhi Nian
In this jianghu there are no old friends; only the sword and you remain with me.