Orphaned and abandoned by her betrothed, Fan Changyu's world was crumbling. With greedy relatives circling her inheritance like vultures, she had only one card left to play: zhaozhui. She recruited a broken, destitute stranger she once saved to be her husband in name only-a handsome face to help her secure her home and protect her young sister. The deal was simple: a sham marriage for a place to heal. But when the imperial army conscripts him, the man she intended to let go vanishes into the smoke of war. Years later, she finds him again in a blood-soaked medic's tent. Seeing the man she once sheltered in tatters, Fan Changyu makes a new vow: "Forget the war. Come home-I'll raise the pigs, and I'll take care of you."

She married in her sister's place, becoming the wife of a man from a family long at odds with her own. The moment Xiao Qiao stepped into the bridal sedan, she had already prepared herself for a life of loneliness. As she had expected, Wei Shao didn't show up to escort his bride; the wedding was rushed, and the day after the marriage, she was to be sent to his hometown. She thought the two of them would spend their lives in a state of "respectful coldness", like ice between them-until misfortune struck again and again. She was abducted by bandits-he led troops to rescue her, slaughtering an enemy city in fury. She was framed by her mother-in-law-he stepped forward to defend her, rebuking his mother to protect his wife. "You really are a calamity." "Whom did I bring calamity to?" "To my heart." But Xiao Qiao knew very well: the one who stirred his heart was her, but the one who truly held it was someone else. And yet, since her feelings had come this far, even if it meant being a moth flying into the flame, she could no longer turn back.