"Plum Blossoms Fall in Bianjing: Brothel Ashes" is set in the late Northern Song Dynasty and tells the epic life of Su Heng (containing modern female consciousness), a brothel girl, who rises and falls with the times in troubled times.
The four volumes have distinct core themes: One volume, "Smoke and Rain Enters the Fan Tower," focuses on "awakening to survive." Su Heng struggles amidst the glitz and undercurrent of power in Fan Tower. Passive survival turns to active resistance; the three volumes of "The End of the Night" highlight the "responsibility for family and country". After the Jingkang Incident, she went into exile with her orphans, defended the city as a savior, and secretly assisted the in-laws' army, rising from a brothel girl to a hero in troubled times; the four volumes of "The Broken Plum Falls in Bianjing" settled on "persistence of faith", offering secret coins in her twilight years, and guarding her motherland and original intention with her life.
Su Heng's character is tenacious, intelligent, affectionate and righteous. He has a clear sense of struggle and deep feelings for his family and country. He always maintains a bottom line and glimmer of light in desperate situations.
Key plots link up the overall situation: the fire at Fan Tower contributed to his awakening, the Lu Mansion's machinations and the breakdown of love promoted his transformation, the Jingkang Incident bound his personal destiny to his family and country, after traveling south, he secretly resisted the golden spies and pursued unjust cases to show his responsibility, and he revealed his secrets before his death and suffered martyrdom in the execution ground to complete the closed loop of his faith. In the end, his son Shen Jue died for his country by quarrying in Shiji, echoing his mother Meihun. The mystery of time travel adds a lingering charm to the story.
