Crying Beneath the Pagoda Tree

The scene of Shen Zhixia crying beneath the locust tree comes from the romantic story “The Moon Over the Mountain Knows Nothing of My Heart.”

In this scene, because her father needs money for medicine, Shen Zhixia has no choice but to agree to marry Young Master Zhou, who lives at the east end of town. Beneath an old locust tree in the back hills, Lin Yanzhi rushes over to try to stop her, but Shen Zhixia rejects him because of the gulf between their circumstances. Overwhelmed by helplessness and pain, she cries beneath the tree, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and smudging the beauty mark at the corner of her eye into a little red dot. The scene highlights the helplessness of Shen Zhixia and Lin Yan's love, and the cruelty of reality.