"Dear Xiao Wanyu:
A great victory in the north on the Winter Solstice. I look forward to the day we meet again, in the endless beauty of Jiangnan.
With love, Yutang."
*
Below Lingbao Temple in Lin'an, beside the willow bridge and moonlit pavilion, there lived a family surnamed Pei.
The orphaned Miss Pei, whose name was Pei Su, lived alone in her house with its estate. Matchmakers came to her door every day, only to be stopped at the threshold by a pair of kitchen knives.
On the final day of her mourning period, Pei Su found a brittle yellow debt note beneath her mother's dressing case.
Her mother, Pei Yun, once a teacher at a girls' school in Lin'an, was the creditor. The debtor was none other than the now-renowned Duke of Fuguo's household.
The rice jar at home was nearly empty, so on a frosty night, with the roads slick beneath the hooves, Pei Su set off with her blue donkey on a dusty journey of a thousand miles to seek a handout from the duke's household.
But as she went on asking for help, she didn't get back a single coin. All she got was a gentleman with the refined looks of a crane and a flowering crabapple.
On the way home:
Pei Su: So, can you wash clothes, weave, mend, chop wood, cook, farm, repair the roof, and empty the chamber pots?
The duke's heir, who had spent twenty years being waited on hand and foot: I can try...
[Synopsis written on November 3, 2025]
1. One-on-one pairing, both leads are inexperienced, pure romance, pure romance, pure romance, very sweet.
2. Life is hard for the author, so I'm out here performing tricks, tossing out my dignity, and letting loose.
3. A fictional setting modeled on the Song dynasty. There are twists and flashbacks, but little political intrigue.
Theme: The moon of that time still shines, as it did when the clouds returned.
