Beneath the Brocade Curtains: The Legitimate Daughter Who Wasn't

During the Xian De era of the Great Yan dynasty, Su Weiwan, the legitimate daughter of the Su family of Jiangnan, is gentle, refined, talented, and beautiful. She believes she is a noblewoman from a distinguished family and has followed the rules expected of a legitimate daughter since childhood. But just before her coming-of-age ceremony, she begins to suspect that her birth is shrouded in mystery: the jade pendant she wears is not the token of a legitimate daughter, her mother’s eyes conceal a hidden pain, and the old servants of the household hesitate to speak.

A marriage contract sends her to the Marquis’s residence, where she faces a difficult mother-in-law, rivalry among her sisters-in-law, and her husband, Gu Yanchen, whose reputation is that of an arrogant and unruly man. Amid the deep courtyards of the household, she stands her ground by yielding when it suits her and overcoming hardness with softness, while secretly investigating the mystery of her birth.

When the truth comes to light, she is not a legitimate daughter at all, but the daughter of a loyal servant who was switched at birth. As factional strife at court engulfs her family, a marriage contract becomes a tool of manipulation, and trust and betrayal intertwine, Su Weiwan chooses to live in the name of “Su Weiwan,” not according to her status as legitimate or illegitimate, protecting those she loves and breaking free of the shackles of the great families.

This is a struggle over identity and the true self, political schemes and sincere love. Beneath the embroidered curtains, no one is born a noblewoman; there are only souls who refuse to let fate define them.