The greatest regret of Tong Guan's life was coming to Shanming from Huhai.
He did not regret coming to Shanming, nor prying up that rotten stone brick in the cemetery, nor even coming to the Eleventh and then the Seventh Branch. This was his destiny.
But he deeply regretted bringing Chang Nian along.
Love could be expressed in many different ways.
Tong Guan had chosen to be a shield, standing in front of his wife and using every ounce of his strength to deal with any trouble that might arise.
That was how he loved.
Just as he had a very, very long time ago, when he first met Chang Nian.
Tong Guan had stepped in to help, only to end up beaten black and blue by those thugs. He still remembered Chang Nian, a stranger to him then, standing to one side and watching with a smile, amusement in her eyes.
Looking back now, so many things had been decided at their very first meeting.
Tong Guan's way was to do everything he could to stand in front of her, but in a sense, the one who ultimately solved the problem was Chang Nian.
Just as with their first meeting all those years ago, Chang Nian might never have needed his help at all. She had dealt with five thugs on her own without even getting the hem of her clothes dirty.
But it was a statement of intent, and a responsibility he chose to shoulder.
There had not been many truly happy days in his life.
Whenever he looked back, the scenes that surfaced in Tong Guan's mind always involved Chang Nian.
They had met because he tried to help someone in trouble. With the left side of his face swollen grotesquely, he had sat across a dining