Phó Cẩm Tiêu

Having saved him from the snow, her soul was bound to his for life." At that time, Phó Cẩm Tiêu secretly left the military camp, concealing his identity as the Marquis of Vũ An, to trace the clues of the case that had framed and harmed his father years ago. Unexpectedly, he was ambushed by enemies who had laid a trap along the way, and he suffered severe injuries. During the fierce battle, exhausted, he fell from a towering cliff into the abyss, his body drifting along the vast ocean currents until it washed ashore at the riverbank of the small town where she lived. His body was covered with torn wounds, one leg was shattered, causing him to walk with a limp, and his inner energy was severely damaged. At that time, her family was extremely impoverished; she single-handedly bore the responsibility of caring for her younger sister, who was sickly. That day, she had to trek all the way to a neighboring village to slaughter pigs for hire, and it was late before she finished. On the road back under a load of snow in the pitch-black winter night, her foot suddenly tripped over a stiff "corpse" nearly buried by the snowstorm. Startled, she brushed away the snow and discovered it was a man covered in blood and pus, barely breathing. Her first instinct was to turn and run away. Her family was already stretched thin, and her little sister was waiting for money for medicine—how could she afford another mouth to feed or the trouble of a man with an unknown background? But seeing the man breathing his last in the cold snow, her remaining humanity and compassion refused to let her look away. Gritting her teeth, she mustered what little strength she had, carried him on her back, and dragged herself step by step back to town. She had just carried him back to the gate when her aunt—the wife of her uncle next door—saw her and hurriedly stopped her. The aunt feared that for a young unmarried woman raising her little sister, carrying a strange man into the house would stir up gossip and damage her reputation. Remembering that her uncle, who worked as a physician at an official rest stop, would soon return, the aunt immediately suggested bringing him to stay at their house for the time being, so they could take care of him and avoid any scandal for her. That night, as soon as her uncle returned from the rest stop, he urgently began acupuncture, setting the shattered bones in his leg, and preparing medicinal decoctions to cleanse his wounds. As for Phó Cẩm Tiêu, having narrowly escaped death, the poison and injuries flared up, plunging him into a deep coma with an unrelenting high fever. Lying on the warm firewood-heated bed in her uncle's house, the man who had once wielded power over a region was now nothing but a weak, broken body, his breath as fragile as a lamp flame in the wind. He could no longer scheme or stay on guard, only lying in a daze, occasionally convulsing in pain as he drifted in and out of consciousness, completely entrusting his life to the healing hands of her uncle and the care of the woman who had carried him back from the cold snow.

Updated September 23, 2026