Synopsis
A Fateful First Meeting: While investigating a smuggling case involving illicit salt, Shen Zhiyi meets Pei Yan, the Marquis of Zhenbei, aboard a merchant ship. A dispute over clues leads to a misunderstanding and a fierce fight in a bamboo grove beneath the moon. By chance, they discover each other’s identities.
Power Struggles: Pei Yan is ordered to secretly investigate corruption in the Jiangnan Salt and Iron Commission, while Shen Zhiyi seeks to clear her father’s name. As they investigate, they discover that the illicit salt case is connected to the Third Prince, with clues leading to a tragic canal transport incident twenty years ago.
Fated Ties: The jade pendant Shen Zhiyi carries conceals secrets from the previous dynasty, while the mystery of Pei Yan’s origins is tied to the massacre of the family of a vice minister of war twenty years ago. As they investigate, the pair gradually uncover the connection between their pasts and discover that the tragedy was orchestrated through imperial machinations.
Love in the Making: From risking their lives to protect one another in a hidden chamber full of traps to pledging their love beneath a red umbrella in the misty Jiangnan rain, their feelings grow as they work together to unravel the schemes. Pei Yan willingly drinks the deadly Qianji poison to protect Zhiyi, and she rides a thousand miles to find him a Tianshan snow lotus.
Dawn at Last: When the truth points straight to the emperor on the throne, the pair must choose between imperial power and justice. In the end, they use irrefutable evidence to bring down the mastermind, then vow to spend their lives together amid the Jiangnan rain.
