In the winter of the thirteenth year of Yongning, the regent Ye Jinghe saved Ye Weilan, the daughter of the former criminal minister, with a single finger at the execution ground.
At that time, she huddled in the snow like a wolf cub; at that time, he was a chess player holding a black piece, killing people like crazy, and never thought that this piece would trap him for ten years.
"I saved you because you are useful."
He taught her tactics, taught her to "live first", and taught her to dance on the edge of a knife. She was counting the days and waiting for him in the palace, while he was counting the hours and planning his plan in Jiangnan. When the three hundred and sixty-five days expired, what awaited him was "just a chess piece", and what was waiting for him was the notebook that had been hidden under her bed for ten years - it was densely packed with evidence of what he had taught, what she had calculated, and how they had tested each other but were reluctant to let go.
"I tell lies because I am afraid that if you know that I care about you, I will become your weakness."
The Empress Dowager took Bai Zi to force her to enter the palace, and she used her life as a bait to set up a trap. Xie Xiaoman died as a hidden stake, and Ye Weishuang's leg was broken on the torture rack in the Jiaofang. This game of chess went from the capital to the south of the Yangtze River, from life and death to ordinary life. They finally learned to grow vegetables, teach, and play chess under the moonlight without expecting to win or lose, but they could not learn how to truly just be themselves.
"Weilan, I want to be a teacher. Rent a room in the south of the Yangtze River and teach three or five boys. There will be no court, no weapons, no... No people who have to be used."
But when the chess game ended and the world was at peace, they discovered: the most ruthless calculation is sincerity, and the deepest obsession is letting go. It took him forty years to prove that he was "reluctant", and she spent her whole life learning to "just be Ye Weilan".
