The Plum Blossom Bride

Dark tendrils of hair spilled out of their former twisted coil like a tangled, inky waterfall over his arms, puddling onto the dirt ground. Scarlet blossomed in profusion at the center of her torso, almost resembling a mortal peony. Her once plump, roseate lips were now deprived of any color, dried and cracked like wrinkled paper. Shallow, rattling breaths feebly slipped in and out between them.

The distant clamor of hustling soldiers and their clanging cacophony of weapon striking weapon, combined with the crackling and crashing of incinerating wood, seemed to fall deaf on the man's ears. The only sounds he could hear were her dying breaths, and it was as if a piece of her life was fleeting away with each exhalation.

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Lanmei had never thought that she'd end up wedding into her family's foe, the Hua Family. And while she was supposed to marry the "degenerate" of the family....she'd ended up marrying his brother instead, who also happened to be the kingdom's most skilled and renowned warrior, the frigid Hua Lijun.

Yet as Lanmei spends more time with Hua, she finds that they may not be as horrible as her own family has always depicted. Bit by bit, as she uncovers the bitter grudge between the Yu and the Hua, she also finds herself unwilling and unexpectedly drawn to Lijun....who may not be as apathetic as she'd thought....

And as war draws near and tension rises, Lanmei is at risk of being thrown into the midst of chaos...and Lijun finds himself trying to protect her from the cruel world he'd long since become familiar with.