Green Grass by the River, Part Three

### **Green Grass by the Riverside: Synopsis**

**In the thirteenth year of the Republic, the grass by the river outside Suzhou grew lush and green.**

At seven, Mingjun was sold by her own mother to the Cheng family for twenty silver dollars and became a maid. Thus began a life as humble yet resilient as the wild grass along the river.

In the grand household, Mingjun endured every cruelty life could offer: the eldest madam's harsh treatment, the steward's beatings, the young master's abuse… She was like a weed trampled underfoot, yet she kept fighting to survive, held to her promise to her mother when they parted: **"Live well."**

Her only ray of light was Cheng Shuyao, the frail second young master of the Cheng family. He secretly brought her books and medicine, telling her, **"You're not a servant. You're a person."**

Yet fate showed no mercy. When Mingjun was sixteen, Master Cheng decided to give her as a concubine to the brutal warlord Commander Zhao. Facing certain ruin, Mingjun chose to fight back, and Cheng Shuyao made a shocking decision of his own…

**In troubled times, human lives are like grass.**

**But she was determined to be the kind of grass that fire cannot consume and hardship cannot break: the green grass by the riverside.**

### **Story Highlights**

✔ **A tragic epic of a maid in the Republican era**: The struggles and resistance of a lower-class woman amid feudal traditions and the ravages of war.

✔ **A resilient heroine who endures in silence**: Like wild grass, Mingjun perseveres, never surrendering her dignity or hope, even in desperate circumstances.

✔ **Forbidden love**: What will become of the forbidden feelings between a young master and a maid amid the tides of class and history?