[Angst first, then catharsis + the whole family’s desperate attempts to make amends]
Shen Zhiwei spent years adrift, suffering hardship after hardship. When she finally found her family and returned to Prince Yong’s estate, she saw the joy on her parents’ and brothers’ faces and believed they would love and protect her, just as they did Shen Zhinan.
But in the end, she finally realized the truth: they were Shen Zhinan’s parents, and Shen Zhinan’s brothers, nothing more.
They forced her to take the blame for Shen Zhinan and go to the bitter, freezing north. She was exiled and tormented for five whole years, but she did not despair.
Her body was riddled with hidden ailments, and she had little time left to live. They only thought she was pretending to be sick, and time and again they helped Shen Zhinan humiliate and torment her. Still, she did not despair!
They took the bearskin coat the Crown Prince had given her and made her kneel on burning coals to apologize to Shen Zhinan. She did not despair!
They said she had grown up among barbarians and could not change her wicked nature, then humiliated her at a banquet in front of the entire court. She endured that, too!
Only when she discovered that her beloved grandmother had not died by accident, but had been killed by Shen Zhinan, did her heart finally turn cold and her resolve harden!
Her always-proud brother knelt outside her door in the snowstorm and begged, “Zhiwei, your brother is begging you. Please come out and see me, all right?”
Even her parents, who had always believed she was the one in the wrong, finally bowed their heads. Begging for forgiveness, they spat blood. “Zhiwei, you’re the only daughter we recognize. Don’t disown us…”
Ha! You’re begging for forgiveness now? Too late!
Her heart had died long ago, the moment she learned they knew how Grandmother died and still chose to shield Shen Zhinan!
On the coldest day of winter, she put on the newly presented fox-fur coat and returned to the lofty position they could only gaze up at, then shut the door on them forever.
The imperial decree was issued: “The Shen family defied their superiors and shielded a criminal daughter. Exile them to Ningguta. They are never to return to the capital!”
