Shadow Love (Yu Jin Chang An)

Li Shuang awoke from unconsciousness to find half her body sunk into the muddy ground.

She tried to move her legs slightly, but the more she struggled, the deeper she sank into the mire. Realizing the danger, she forced herself to stay still. The surroundings were pitch black, save for a faint glimmer of light about thirty feet away. By its dim glow, she could just make out the figure of a man lying beside her—flat on the muddy surface, only his heavy boots trapped in the swamp.

"Your Highness?" she called softly.

The man groaned, roused by her voice. As he shifted slightly, Li Shuang saw his body sink further. "Don't move!" she snapped.

Sima Yang quickly grasped their predicament. "Quicksand?"

"Mm. Doesn't seem natural—more like a deliberate trap."

Li Shuang looked up. Above them gaped a dark hole—likely where they had fallen through. But now, thick wooden beams crisscrossed the opening, sealing it shut. This was no accident; someone had set this up.

"So this is where all the felled trees went," she muttered.

Not burned, not used for construction, not hauled away—just repurposed underground for this very trap. But who would do such a thing? And why?

Her thoughts flashed back to moments earlier.

She and Sima Yang had led their respective guards to investigate the forest. Li Shuang had intended to circle the perimeter—after all, with the crown prince present, they couldn’t afford to take risks. But as they approached the treeline, faint cries for help had drifted from within.

Skeptical of ghost stories, Li Shuang had ordered the guards to protect Sima Yang while she ventured in alone. But he refused. Insisting on accompanying her, they entered the woods together with their escort.

Felled trees lay everywhere, leaving behind a wasteland of stumps. The desolate grove felt even more eerie than before.

Following the cries, they delved deeper—too deep. Unease prickled at Li Shuang as the path brought them closer to where they had found the "resurrected" old woman. She was about to call for a retreat when a white figure lunged from the shadows.

Li Shuang drew her sword, but the attacker moved with unnatural speed, seizing Sima Yang and yanking him forward. She and the guards gave chase—only to plunge into an underground chamber after a few steps.

The stone room was littered with bones, though the stench had long faded. Li Shuang’s gaze locked onto the white figure as it dragged Sima Yang into a crumbling cave at the back. She pursued, but the tunnels twisted into a maze. Within moments, multiple paths branched before them.

Ordering the guards to split up, Li Shuang turned toward the rightmost passage with one escort—when the white figure reappeared.With a swift movement by her side, the bodyguard was instantly knocked to the ground. Li Shuang's eyes narrowed as she raised her sword to block, barely managing to fend off the sneak attack from the white figure and forcing the assailant to halt momentarily.

Li Shuang focused her gaze and saw that what clashed with her heavy eight-sided sword was actually a steel folding fan. And the person wielding it was... that "spy"?

The well-dressed man who had escaped from Lucheng's dungeon?

It was him!

"Well, General Li is indeed formidable," he chuckled softly, as if casually greeting her on the street.

Li Shuang snapped sharply, "Who are you really? Where is His Highness?"

The man smiled, his expression deceptively harmless. "I'll take you to him." As soon as he finished speaking, two long whips shot out from the cave behind him. Li Shuang steadied herself, dodged one, while the other was intercepted by Qin Lan, who had heard the commotion and rushed back.

Qin Lan reached out to pull Li Shuang behind him, but the man flicked his fan. The fan flew through the air, slicing Qin Lan's arm before returning to strike the back of Li Shuang's head with its ribs. The blow hit a critical spot, and Li Shuang's vision blurred momentarily, her legs nearly giving way. In her daze, she suddenly felt her arm tighten, and the surroundings blurred around her...

She wanted to resist, gritting her teeth against the dizziness, but as she steadied herself and raised her sword to strike, she was shoved hard on the shoulder. Her body lurched backward uncontrollably, and the sensation of weightlessness returned, overwhelming her senses once more.

When she awoke, she was already in this state.

She didn't understand why that man had left her and Sima Yang alone in this place. What about the others? The bodyguards who had accompanied them—how would he deal with them? And that man... Though Li Shuang couldn't be certain, his speed and techniques bore an eerie resemblance to those of the mysterious black-armored warrior.

Were they connected? Did they share the same master?

But clearly, there was no time for Li Shuang to ponder these questions now. Her heavy armor dragged her body deeper into the mud. Earlier, the mire had only reached her waist, but now it was nearly up to her chest.

Carefully, Li Shuang raised her hands and unfastened the chest and shoulder plates of her armor. She glanced at Sima Yang beside her.

Sima Yang was in slightly better condition. He lay flat on the mud, almost floating, with only his heavy boots sinking deep into the mire. The rest of his body remained mobile, but he couldn't move—any shift in balance would cause him to sink further.

The only solution was to give him a foothold. If he had something to push against, he could leap out of the mud safely.

"Your Highness," Li Shuang called to him. "Do you still have strength?"

"Yes."

"My arm is here. You can step on it to escape the mire."

Sima Yang paused. "If I step on your arm and exert force, what will happen to you?"

"This subject has her own way..."

"What way?"

Faced with Sima Yang's pressing question, Li Shuang fell silent.She had no choice in the situation they were both trapped in. If she chose to save him, she could only save Sima Yang. If she didn't, and time was wasted until they sank deeper, even if Sima Yang wanted to step on her to get out, it would be impossible—they would both die here.

Abandoning the pawn to save the king was a decision Li Shuang made instinctively as a general.

"Your Highness, it is our duty to protect you with our lives. You must not come to any harm here in the northern frontier."

"Li Shuang." Sima Yang finally called her name, just as he had in their childhood days when they were close and intimate. "Are you asking me to kill you to save myself?"

Li Shuang was silent for a moment. "This is the only way to save Your Highness. To protect you, I must die here. Please... do not let past affections cloud your judgment."

The "bigger picture" she spoke of was something they both understood. In the current court, the Third Prince, backed by the prime minister, was eyeing the throne covetously. If anything happened to Sima Yang here, allowing the Third Prince to ascend, the empress, the general's household, and all the crown prince's trusted aides in court would suffer.

"Your Highness, having been stationed in the frontier for years, I occasionally hear news from the capital. I've heard you now have a noble heir, and court affairs are becoming more stable..."

"Li Shuang," Sima Yang interrupted her. "After we parted three years ago, I missed you for three years. And now, do you want me to miss you for the rest of my life?"

Li Shuang's eyes flickered slightly, but then she forced a smile. "I dare to say, the reason I'm so desperate to save the crown prince today is actually to ask for a favor in the future—so that if I ever speak too bluntly and invite disaster, I might have a way to protect myself."

"With me, no matter what you say, you will never face disaster."

Li Shuang lowered her gaze and struggled to move slightly closer to the crown prince. She curled her arm, already sinking into the mire, and reached beneath Sima Yang's boot. "Your Highness."

Sima Yang remained silent and motionless for a long time. Li Shuang, too, said nothing. Finally, Sima Yang exhaled softly. "Li Shuang, if you make it out of here, I'll grant you any wish."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

In an instant, Sima Yang pushed himself up. His body sank slightly, but with his foot planted firmly on Li Shuang's arm, he kicked off with tremendous force. Li Shuang felt herself sinking deeper into the mire, while Sima Yang soared into the air, his armor shedding clumps of mud. In the blink of an eye, he landed on solid stone ground three zhang away.

By the time he turned back, Li Shuang had already disappeared beneath the quagmire.

The sludge barely rippled, calmly swallowing all traces of the earlier disturbance. Covered in mud, Sima Yang clenched his fists. He stood there for a while, but there was nothing nearby to use for rescue. Gritting his teeth, his expression darkened, and he turned toward the faint light in the distance.

The clang of his armored steps against stone grew fainter and fainter.

But he didn't see it—after he left, a single bubble slowly rose from the depths of the mire.

Then, with a loud splash, a figure shattered the wooden barrier above the dark pit, carrying a gust of icy wind, and plunged into the murky sludge with an expression of near despair.In no time at all, ripples suddenly emerged from the mud pit. The sludge seemed to be pushed aside by an immense force from within. With a loud "boom," the entire pit exploded instantly, splattering mud everywhere. The walls of the cave were completely covered, the thick sludge slowly sliding down and pooling at the lower areas. At the bottom of what had once been the mud pit, a man with his upper body nearly bare held Li Shuang tightly in his arms.

She had held her breath, preventing the mud from entering her nose and mouth, but the prolonged lack of air had turned her face a sickly shade of blue-black, her breathing nearly ceased.

Jin An pressed down on her chest with desperate force. "No, you can't," he pleaded.

His bloodshot eyes brimmed with tears, falling one after another onto Li Shuang's darkened face with each ragged word.

"I won't let you die. You can't die."

Each cry was hoarse with utter despair.

She could do anything—love someone else, marry someone else, belong to someone else—but she couldn't die. If she died, even his suffering would lose all meaning.