Hearts Through the Haze

Wen Ning was eighteen when she started seeing Mu Tangsheng, a man under her father's command and eight years older than her. They kept it going in secret for ten years. Then her older brother was killed in battle and her father fell seriously ill, and she asked Mu Tangsheng to marry her, to settle her father's mind and her brother's spirit. It was the tenth time she had asked. He turned her down again and took up with Ye Wanxin, a childhood friend his own age. She made no scene about it this time. She knelt in front of the Buddha and drew a lot, and the lot gave her Zhou Ye, a mercenary captain with a bad name. She set the wedding for the soonest date she could get.