I Took My Sister's Place—and Left Him Behind

Princess Chu Zhaoxue and General Pei Shi'an have been entangled for two lifetimes. In her first life, she forced the emperor to grant her a marriage decree, binding Pei Shi'an to her against his will. What followed was eight years of mutual hatred—a union poisoned by resentment, cold silence, and wounds that never healed. When the city fell, Pei Shi'an shielded her escape with his own body, taking a hundred arrows so she could live. His last wish was cruel: in the next life, he begged, let there be no entanglement between them. Then Chu Zhaoxue saw the jade pendant clenched in his dying hand. It was carved with the name "Shuang'er"—her younger sister, Chu Yanshuang. The man who died for her had only done so to buy a future with another woman. Chu Zhaoxue threw herself from the city wall and followed him in death. When she opens her eyes, she is back on the day she begged her father for the marriage decree. This time, she does not ask. She lets Pei Shi'an go, granting his dying wish with cold, quiet resolve. She volunteers to take her sister's place in a political marriage to the border tribes, leaving the capital and the man she once loved behind. But Pei Shi'an does not expect her to walk away so easily. The woman who once fought to keep him now refuses to look back. The more she lets go, the more he begins to realize what he has lost. His obsession with the sister fades into confusion, then panic, as the princess who was supposed to cling to him becomes the one person he cannot reach. And by the time he understands the truth, Chu Zhaoxue has already crossed the border—and there is no road back to her.