The Untold Tale of Wutang

When late-spring crabapple blossoms carpeted the steps, Chu Wei would always clutch her mother’s old jade hairpin and stand beneath the covered walkway. The withered petals hidden in its cracks held the last warmth her mother had clutched in the sea of blood at the mansion gates twenty years ago. The medicinal scent lingering in her sleeves spoke of the regret she had tried desperately to make up for after founding the Ashen Pavilion and joining the Court of Judicial Review: failing to protect her family.

She is the Ashen Pavilion’s most formidable leader, a third-rank judicial vice commissioner renowned for solving cases, and an orphan of a great house whose heart is covered in scars. To protect the people, she assassinated a tyrant and helped a wise ruler ascend the throne. She pawned her mother’s jade bracelet to buy food and used a heart-protecting parasite to stop a fatal arrow, only to be met with suspicion that her achievements threatened the throne.

On the day countless arrows pierced her heart, spring crabapple blossoms fell upon her bloodstained robes. The last thing she clutched was not a chance to survive, but the unbloodied jade hairpin. She asked softly, “Mother, I protected the whole world. Why couldn’t I even protect the sweetness of a crabapple-flavored rice cake?”