[Classic substitute-and-revenge melodrama, the tired imprisonment trope, a heroine who never loves him even in death]
Shen Qingyi once thought her life would be spent tending their little courtyard, watching her younger brother Shen Qingyuan earn top honors in the imperial examinations, then sewing him a new set of clothes.
Until
“Shen Qingyuan died by suicide to escape punishment.”
The constable’s words were like an ice-forged blade, carving through her insides. The purplish-black ligature marks on her brother’s neck, the fact that not a patch of skin on his body was uninjured: how could that be suicide? He had clearly been tortured to death.
And the one who had ordered them to “wear him down slowly” was Xiao Che, the Regent who held the court in his thrall.
Everyone said the Regent was devoted to the past. Three years ago, Su Wan died on her wedding day, and he became a living demon. But why should his white moonlight become a cinnabar mole, while her own brother was left to rot in a gutter?
Shen Qingyi shed her plain clothes and donned a replica phoenix crown and bridal robe. On the anniversary of Su Wan’s death, she stormed into Xiao Che’s Lotus Heart Pool.
Through the rain and mist, her red wedding dress caught his eye. He gripped her wrist, his voice trembling, as if he’d seized a lifeline. “Wan’er?”
Shen Qingyi lowered her eyes and offered a meek, timid smile, while her fingertips quietly tightened around the hairpin hidden in her sleeve
My lord, do I look like her?
If I do, that’s all that matters.
From now on, day and night, I’ll play the part of her gentle self, mimic her mannerisms, and drink down every drop of honey and poison you give me.
Once you believe in this substitute’s “devotion,” I’ll drag you down from the clouds with my own hands. Then you can look upon my brother’s wronged spirit, and see the blade Shen Qingyi has hidden behind her smile.
