[Palace and household intrigue + a husband regrets too late + tragic ending]
Zhang Wantang was the legitimate second daughter of the Prime Minister's household, unloved by both her father and mother. From a young age, she was engaged to her maternal cousin Shen Yiyang. Her full sister, Zhang Wanrou, now the Empress, was the love of Shen Yiyang's life. They had been childhood sweethearts, deeply devoted to each other. But Zhang Wanrou chose to enter the palace and leave Shen Yiyang behind.
Shen Yiyang was a hopeless romantic. On his wedding night, he even abandoned his new bride, Zhang Wantang, and spent the night in his study, which was covered with portraits of Zhang Wanrou. The next day, he requested a post on the frontier and went off to war. Later, Emperor Li Mingyuan and Zhang Wantang accidentally discovered that the two had been carrying on an affair.
To get revenge, the Emperor, Zhang Wantang's brother-in-law, also tried to force himself on her. Everyone pushed her toward the fire, urging her to agree. In the end, Zhang Wantang agreed to the Emperor's demand to protect her younger sister. During the process, however, she gradually accepted the Emperor's presence in her life. But after her family had used her, they coldly cast her aside.
Meanwhile, she reconciled with her elder sister, the Empress, and their relationship gradually improved. At the tearful pleas of her parents-in-law, she also made peace with her husband, Shen Yiyang. She thought they could finally live out their days in peace.
But fate played another cruel joke on Zhang Wantang. A letter sent all the way from the capital shattered that peace. It revealed a shocking secret, and Shen Yiyang, heedless of everyone else's advice, resolutely took Zhang Wantang back to the capital.
In the end, caught between her father's schemes, her enemy's revenge, her sister's hesitation, her brother-in-law's selfishness, and her husband's cowardice, Zhang Wantang drowned in the quagmire of the power struggle.
