When Jiang Yirou was fourteen years old, a bunch of candied haws fell on the bluestone floor. She was helped up by the young general Li Sheng. A plain handkerchief embroidered with the word "Sheng" locked her infatuation for half her life.
In order to fulfill her husband's last wish to protect her when she grew up, she forced her to marry him through kindness, but she only got a deserted side-door wedding and the endless loneliness in the side courtyard of the General's Mansion. His heart belongs to him, and he regards her as a burdensome burden, cutting her off from all tenderness.
The border war broke out, and her husband died in the battle to save Li Sheng. The marriage she had obtained at the risk of her life turned into a joke. He married his beloved in glory, while she stayed alone in an empty room in a cold courtyard; he went to the battlefield to care for his lover, but she was forgotten in a deep house like a prisoner.
Beidi coach Yelu Feng suddenly appeared, using a map to lure her and warmth as a net to treat her as the prey he has been obsessed with for many years. The bad news came that her family and country had been overthrown, and her whole family had been executed. In order to protect his life, she stole the plan and defected. She was burdened with eternal infamy, but in exchange for him, she only received a fatwa ordering him to "see her alive and her dead body."
Hongzhuang married into the enemy camp, and she became his most hated traitor, and also became the Yan family that Yelu Feng was bound to win. On the high platform, she stabbed Ye Lufeng to death with her own hands, ending the conspiracy and plunder. She turned around to face Li Sheng, who had returned from the bloodbath, and saw nothing but desolation.
From the sweetness of the candied haws, to the warmth of the handkerchief, to the bloody sorrow, she devoted her life to a hopeless love. When love and hate are over, the wind and snow have cleared, and the old handkerchief is stained with blood, then you realize that all your obsessions are ultimately an empty dream.
