At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the old system collapsed and new trends surged. The Shen family in Jiangnan had a daughter, who inherited the family's academic background and was immersed in the fragrance of calligraphy and calligraphy, but she was trapped in the shackles of "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue". Seeing that her family and country were in turmoil and people's livelihood was in decline, she was unwilling to be reduced to a vassal of the boudoir. She vowed to use the pen as the blade and the paper as the path to break through the gender barriers and knock on the door of the imperial examination. The shackles of the old rules, the cold eyes of the world, the obstruction of the family, and the agitation of new trends of thought are intertwined. She spends her time among the Qingdeng ancient scrolls, explores a way out in the classics and history collections, and makes friends with her peers and equal opponents inside and outside the examination hall. With a gentle attitude, she resists the prejudice of the times, writes her ambitions with beautiful literary talent, and in the fragrance of ink and flames, she walks a path to success that belongs exclusively to women, and witnesses the changes of an era and the awakening of individuals.
