Love Outlasts Forgetting. Shen Lingshuang spent her life saving lives, yet she personally poisoned the only person she ever loved.
They first met beneath apricot blossoms in the spring rain. He was her patient, A Ye, and she was the traveling doctor Lingshuang. A silver bell she had made herself and a promise, “As long as the bell remains, so will I,” were all the warmth she had in this world.
It wasn't until he personally brought her into the palace that she learned he was Li Ye, the crown prince.
Only then did she understand that the imperial palace was no home. It was a hell. The emperor, whom she revered like a father and elder brother, kindly molded her into the sharpest sword hanging over the crown prince's head. Every time he urged the court to act for the good of the country, she had to condemn him as “impatient and eager for quick results.” When he painstakingly found a cure for the epidemic, she had to hand it over to the emperor, robbing him of his people's loyalty and clipping his wings.
Every one of her “betrayals” came from the deepest desire to protect him. She tested medicine for him, leaving herself with a lifelong sensitivity to the cold. She maneuvered on his behalf, bearing the scorn of the entire realm.
But he didn't know. He saw only her rise, step by step, and her icy reserve.
On the night they broke apart, he clutched the silver bell that had sealed their promise. Its shards cut into their palms, mingling blood and tears. “Shen Lingshuang, what is your heart made of?”
Later, the “irrefutable proof” that he had betrayed his country and colluded with the enemy was proclaimed to the world. In the imperial prison, he watched her bring him poisoned wine and smiled with relief. “It's better this way. You came to see me off yourself.”
He didn't know that as he drank the poison, she was kneeling outside the palace hall, trading all her dignity and family fortune for his chance to live.
Years later, when the new emperor ascended the throne and granted a general amnesty, she finally found... amid the misty rain of Jiangnan
