She was the least accomplished daughter of the Shen family in Jiangnan. She was mediocre at music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and only loved tending flowers and plants, earning her sisters’ mocking nickname, “useless.” Who could have guessed that war would erupt and an age of prosperity would collapse, forcing the whole family onto a desperate journey in search of refuge? Her parents died of illness one after another, and her siblings each went their own way to survive, leaving her alone with a few shriveled seeds, stumbling through the dust and the dead. Ahead lay a hell on earth stretching across a thousand miles of barren land. Behind her was the home of splendor she could never return to. When both dignity and a full stomach became luxuries, could the tiny spark of life in her palm bloom into a flower that outshone all worldly splendor?
