The young general in resplendent attire astride a spirited steed was bestowed upon me as a guard by my imperial father. I knew his heart seethed with discontent. Yet on the day the emperor decreed my marriage to a princely consort, he knelt ceaselessly before the palace gates. 'This humble general offers eight thousand li of wind-swept sands and moonlit nights, fifty years of glorious prospects,' he proclaimed, 'to beg for Your Highness's fleeting glance.'