[Both leads are devoted only to each other; the childhood friend is not the endgame; the stepson storyline takes center stage; a slow-burn romance; a heroine who raises a powerful minister.]
Jing Zhao is the pampered legitimate daughter of the Vice Minister of Personnel, cherished by everyone in the household.
But when she is seventeen, rumors suddenly spread through the capital accusing her father of hiding remnants of the former dynasty. The emperor is enraged, and the Vice Minister’s residence is drenched in blood in a single day.
That day, her father holds her hand and says, “Zhao’er, I’ve asked someone for help. He’ll come for you. You must stay alive.”
Jing Zhao hides beneath the bed, and at last her savior arrives. But he says, “Become a concubine in the Xie household, or I can do nothing to save you.”
Her father has died before her eyes, and her mother is nowhere to be found. To survive, she agrees. Dressed in pink, she enters the Xie household in a small sedan chair through the side gate.
That same day, Shen Yan passes the palace examinations at the top of his class, only to watch the woman he loves being carried into the Xie household in a sedan chair.
“Zhaozhao, ”
Clad in the red robe of a newly crowned top scholar, he gallops after her, but arrives too late. Her pink veil slips away, revealing eyes utterly devoid of hope.
He tries to save her. Before the emperor, he offers up his official post, asking only to marry the woman he loves.
“I cannot make another man’s concubine the wife of the top scholar.”
But fate has other plans, and from then on, things slip beyond his control.
When the Minister of Rites’ household takes in its seventh concubine, Xie Yanchu sees her for the first time and thinks she is like a white orchid, noble and resilient, yet so frail.
One day, as she leaves the Xie family’s rooms, her slender fingers are red when she curtseys.
From then on, the two find themselves crossing paths more and more.
“Eldest Young Master, I made these pastries myself. Thank you for your kindness that day.”
Once, twice, again and again…
“Take them away.”
“Too rich.”
“They are a little rich.”
“They’re delicious.”
“Concubine, when will you make them for me again?”
The truth behind her status as a concubine conceals far too many mysteries.
