Bowing Low: Memories of Our Youth

At the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, the imperial house was in decline and the realm had fallen apart. Warlords and powerful clans fought for control of the Central Plains, while flames of war swept across the land and the people suffered terribly. Amid the shifting tides of this troubled age, the Wei family rose to power in the north. Drawing on generations of accumulated strength and wisdom, they became rulers of their domain. The Qiao family, meanwhile, struggled to hold on in Jiangdong. Though a prestigious clan, they were buffeted by bandits and surrounded by covetous rivals.

To save his family from ruin, Master Qiao resolutely traveled north to ask the Wei family for troops. After weighing the pros and cons, Wei Cang, grandfather of Wei Shao, decided to lend a hand and sent elite forces to help the Qiao family quell the unrest in Jiangdong. To cement their alliance after the fighting, Wei Cang sent the young Wei Shao to live with the Qiao family. Thus began the childhood years Wei Shao spent alongside the Qiao sisters, Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao.

Wei Shao, Da Qiao, and Xiao Qiao shared countless happy moments among the pavilions, gardens, and horse grounds of the Qiao family estate. They studied and learned to read together in a pavilion each morning, played in the grass in the afternoons, caught dragonflies by the pond in summer, and learned to ride and shoot at the stables. Their bond grew deeper with every passing day.

But when Wei Shao was fifteen, the situation in the north suddenly changed. He was summoned back to the Wei family to take part in family affairs, and had no choice but to part from Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao. The separation sent the three of them down different paths in life, yet the tangled circumstances of this age of chaos would bind their fates ever more tightly together.