The beginning starts out with ML and MC on their road to exile. ML was the 2nd prince of the empress, Empress Fu, and his brother was the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was a perfect ruler who ruled with compassion and love for his country. ML was one of the best fighter and had guarded the boarder for years in order to support his brother. Suddenly, the emperor, their father, had a sudden stroke and called ML back to the palace. He raced back urgently only to find out that his father had actually never loved his mother the Empress. Instead, his father's true love was Consort Li who was just a servant of the emperor since childhood. He only married Empress Fu in order to control the court and pretended for 20 years to be deeply in love with her in order to pave way for his other son with Consort Li to be the new emperor. Due to the sudden stroke, he accused the Crown Prince of treason, killed his entire family, buried Empress Fu alive with him, and exiled ML and the Fu family far away. ML fell into despair and grief as the father he had always thought loved him and supported him was actually just lying to him his whole life. ML had his scapulae pierced and bound with iron chains which looped around his collarbones and secured to his handcuffs. It was then MC transmigrated and realized her situation. She was very rational and thought about how to escape and eventually concluded that the only way she can survive is by placing her bets on her instant husband. She has no power, no ability, and the only way is by helping ML can she also be safe. Honestly, I really like her self-awareness. Both she and ML have no feelings for each other at this point but if she saved him then he will save her. During an attempted assassination, MC manages to free ML and they break out together. On the run, ML gets hit by a poison arrow and MC manages to save his life. They spent several days narrowly escaping and with the ML weak, the MC showed immense strength in order to save them both. Then, they eventually manage to escape their pursuers by falling into a waterfall. And it's at this time that MC told ML, if they die then at least they can die together, and I think this is when ML falls for MC.

They manage to survive the waterfall and is saved by a family. From this point on, the ML only trusts MC. So when he's going out to investigate, he'll first put MC in a safe place or he'll take MC with him. He would rather have MC with him so he's sure he can save her than place her somewhere he can't see. I personally think this is very sweet and I really like a dedicated ML who boldly shows that MC is more important to him than his own life. He rarely lets her take any risks and even if she does, he gets very angry but can't bear to yell at her so he just becomes frustrated by himself. MC's feelings, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. She doesn't fall for the ML at the very beginning. Even though she knows she'll probably only have ML for the rest of her life, she's afraid to fall in love with him because of her past life's experience with her parents and even in the current life's parents experiences. She's willing to be with him, but she's not willing to give her heart because she's afraid he'll take in concubines, especially since this is ancient times where's it normal and expected for men to have more than one wife. It takes a while for MC to overcome this fear but ML is willing to wait for her. And their love story is very sweet and satisfying. I don't think it was unusual for them to fall in love and I don't think it was very rushed. I think they both loved each other but it just took a bit for both of them to finally realize it. But once they did, it was perfect.