From Pure Love to Pure Hatred: Lovers to Enemies Until Death

This is the story of Shen Moyan, Jiangnan’s foremost scholar, and Han Zhi, the fiery daughter of a military family, whose love and rivalry entangle them for a lifetime. He is a celebrated third-place winner in the imperial examinations; she is a woman of extraordinary talent and brilliance. When they first meet, he is the star in her eyes, and she is the cinnabar mark in his heart. Shen Moyan turns Han Zhi’s vivacity and intelligence into characters in his novels, bringing him literary fame but also sowing the seeds of jealousy and resentment. Unwilling to remain a shadow behind her talented husband, Han Zhi fights back with her own gifts, publishing books and competing with him in literary circles. Amid alcohol, suspicion, family pressures, and ever-worsening emotional turmoil, they torment each other, going from an enviable couple to bitter spouses. In the end, one dies in melancholy and the other wastes away, leaving behind a legendary story that breaks the heart.