Shen Zhiyi, the only daughter of Jirentang, a century-old pharmacy in the capital, was seven when her parents saved the Yongning Princess from an assassination attempt. She was brought to the Anyang Prince’s estate, where she became the personal maid and study companion of the heir, Zhao Yuan.
On her first day at the estate, he tied a little gourd carved from green jade around her waist. With crookedly carved letters, he had written the character “An” on it. In a domineering yet earnest voice, he told her, “You can play with it, but don’t ever take it off. Wear it for the rest of your life.”
For ten years, they were together every day. She tied tassels to his sword, and he sheltered her from wind and snow. She kept to the boundaries of master and servant, while he restrained the possessiveness etched into his bones. A chi-dragon pendant and a green jade gourd, carved from the same jade, remained close to their bodies, never leaving their sides. Yet neither ever crossed the line.
Until Lu Qingci, a talented young scholar from Jiangnan, appeared. He and Shen Zhiyi discussed medicine and herbs, finding kindred spirits in each other. They walked side by side through the capital’s rainy lanes beneath a single oil-paper umbrella. For the first time, Zhao Yuan realized that the person he had guarded for ten years might truly leave.
Meanwhile, at court, Li Chong, Vice Minister of Rites, was secretly weaving a vast web of intrigue. He forged a secret letter accusing the Crown Prince of conspiring with the enemy and colluded with bandits along the border, aiming to bring down both the Eastern Palace and the Anyang Prince’s estate in one stroke. On the night blades and bloodshed reached the estate’s rear courtyard, Zhao Yuan stood in front of her and faced the attackers alone, his arm drenched in blood.
At that moment, the walls around her heart, built over ten years, came crashing down.
Amid political upheaval and a kingdom in peril, one pendant and one gourd, one couple, and a profound love spanning from the age of seven to old age will finally find peace and safety for years to come at the end of the storm.
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