A Girl's Past—Is This Still the Iceberg Rose?

Seeing their commanding general dead, the surrounding demon soldiers immediately panicked and fled in all directions.

Zichuan Mingyue's troops, who had already been driven into a desperate situation, stared blankly as the demon soldiers who had been brutally slaughtering them moments ago scattered and ran. Every face was filled with utter disbelief.

Who would have thought these eight hundred men would be like monsters, actually driving back the demons besieging them? Eight hundred against five thousand—at present, only the Empire's God of War could have achieved such a feat.

A young man in golden armor and a silver mask rode up to Zichuan Mingyue.

Lin Junyu looked at the familiar, peerless beauty before him, his gaze complicated.

Zichuan Mingyue stared fixedly at the spirited young man before her, as if she wanted to see through the silver faceplate and make out his features. Could it be him?

Lin Junyu removed his helmet, revealing his handsome face. His skin was fine and fair, entirely lacking the rough, weathered darkness of an ordinary soldier. His nose was high and straight, his brow ridge sharp. Most striking of all were his eyes—their dark pupils resembled black jade tempered with cold starlight. They held the keenness forged on the battlefield, yet when he smiled, the corners of his eyes curved into gentle arcs without losing their warmth.

Like jade, this unfamiliar youth stood peerless beneath heaven.

Golden armor displayed his heroic bearing, its sharp radiance reflecting the moon.

When he smiled, starlit eyes stirred; when he stood, he was a lone green pine.

They gazed at one another from horseback, and at first sight, he led all living hearts astray.

Zichuan Mingyue stared blankly at the young man, who no longer looked as he once had. The heart within her, long silent, began to beat once more.

"Big Sister Mingyue? Why are you here?"

Seeing Zichuan Mingyue staring at him without blinking, Lin Junyu was rather puzzled, but he still asked the question that concerned him most.

Back then, she had left Far Capital without a word, and he had never seen her again. He had not expected to run into her here.

Did I owe the Zichuan Family some sort of debt? I saved the younger brother, and now I'm saving the older sister?

Hearing the familiar voice of the boy and seeing the face that had grown into such handsome maturity, Zichuan Mingyue's thoughts quietly returned to four years ago.

He had been fourteen that year, and she seventeen—the age when boys and girls first began to understand love.

They had first met when she was ten. She had accompanied her mother on a visit to Qu Manor, where she encountered him. At the time, he had only been a seven-year-old brat, yet he always put on the airs of a little old man.

He could tell so many wonderful stories and knew so many things she did not. Gradually, she became captivated by those novel tales and often ran to play with Qu Yu, though in truth, she had gone to see him.

As she grew older, she gradually realized that she harbored different feelings toward that little brat three years her junior. Whenever she saw him treating her best friend Qu Yu better than he treated her, an indescribable anger would rise in her, and she would want to beat him up.

She began to care about how she appeared before him. Though she knew he was just a little brat who understood nothing, she still carefully dressed herself every time she went to see him.

Watching the little brother gradually grow until he was nearly as tall as her, becoming more and more handsome, she felt a deep sense of accomplishment, along with a desire to claim him for herself.

The thought startled her at the time, but whenever she considered that another woman might be by his side after he grew up, her heart would ache with an indescribable misery and irritation.

She could not understand why. Her father was away year-round with her younger brother, and only she and her mother remained at the Zichuan Family residence in Far Capital. Whenever she had doubts, she could only confide in her mother.

So she went to ask her mother. But with that one question, everything changed.

That day, her mother flew into a rage and locked her in her room.

The next day, she stuffed her into Prince Lin's army and sent her to the front lines.

From then on, she never received any news of Little Brother Lin again. The family cut off all contact between them.

The tender thread of affection from her seventeen-year-old heart was mercilessly severed.

Years of slaughter on the front lines had turned her heart cold and hard as an iceberg. Thus, throughout the Southeast Legion, she had been given a title: the Iceberg Rose.

There had been no shortage of young officers in the army who wished to pursue her, but she rejected them all coldly. She only wanted to fight the enemy with all her strength and bring glory to the entire Zichuan Family.

But how could the feelings of a girl's youth possibly be cut off so easily?

That single "Big Sister Mingyue" from the young man was like being taken back to that time. Like a blaze, it instantly melted the glacier in her heart.

"Little Brother Yu... sob..."

When they met again, he had become an adult—and was even more handsome than she had imagined he would be. Remembering the hardships and grievances she had endured over the years, Zichuan Mingyue no longer cared whether this was still a battlefield. Tears welling in her eyes, she leaped toward Lin Junyu.

Watching Zichuan Mingyue fly toward him from her horse, Lin Junyu's eyelids twitched wildly. He immediately reached out and caught the beautiful woman throwing herself at him, preventing her from falling to the ground and getting hurt.

Unfortunately, he was wearing armor. Otherwise, he surely would have experienced what it felt like to have soft, fragrant jade in his arms.

The surviving Southeast Legion soldiers who had broken out stared at the scene in unison, their eyes wide and their mouths hanging open as large as duck eggs.

The Iceberg Rose of their army had just thrown herself into someone's arms? This had to be fake!

But when they looked at Lin Junyu's face, then recalled the terrifying strength he had displayed while killing the enemy just now, everyone sighed in understanding. The famous flower already had an owner!

Lin Junyu had one arm around Zichuan Mingyue's slender waist and the other supporting her back, his entire body stiff.

Feeling Zichuan Mingyue burying her head in his neck and sobbing continuously, her tears soaking his neck like a stream and trickling into his collar, he could not help but sigh. Women really were made of water!

He looked around. His Imperial Guards were cleaning up the battlefield, yet they kept sneaking glances in this direction. That would have been one thing, but they were even covering their mouths to laugh. They really deserved a beating.

Zichuan Mingyue's troops were far more direct. They stared straight at him, glaring with resentment and hostility, as though he had done something to wrong them.

Lin Junyu did not know how long he had held her. His arms felt sore, and the gazes of everyone around him made every moment feel like a year.

Zichuan Mingyue, who clung to him like a kangaroo, had long since stopped sobbing. Yet she still buried her head against his neck, and he could feel her breath brushing against the skin of his neck.

This girl hadn't fallen asleep, had she? Damn it, what was I supposed to do then? I didn't want to keep this pose on horseback forever—it was exhausting!

As evening fell, the army's tents had already been set up.

Holding Zichuan Mingyue, who had already woken but whose face was red as a monkey's butt as she remained buried in his embrace, Lin Junyu entered the main tent with a stern expression amid the soldiers' snickering gazes.

He gently laid her on the simple wooden cot in the tent, flexed his stiff arms, removed his heavy armor, and tossed it onto a wooden rack nearby. Then he removed Zichuan Mingyue's armor as well and tossed it up there.

Zichuan Mingyue did not resist, allowing Lin Junyu to do as he pleased.

"Big Sister Mingyue, why are you here?"

Lin Junyu took the freshly butchered game meat handed over by a soldier outside the tent and set it over the fire to roast. Then he turned to look at Zichuan Mingyue, who lay on the wooden cot and stared directly at him by the firelight, and asked softly.