"Suppose your enemy appeared in front of you. What would you do?"
Her master kept asking Zhaoyun this question. Every time, Zhaoyun answered that she would kill him.
But while gathering herbs beyond the valley, she found her enemy's son, gravely wounded.
Kill him? Or spare him?
Zhaoyun went against her own heart and chose the latter.
Her enemy was a powerful figure and would surely come looking for his son, so Zhaoyun forced herself to get along with the man, though she could barely stand him.
Unbeknownst to him, she had already been slipping slow-acting poison into his food every day. Yet as they spent more time together, the look in his eyes grew increasingly strange.
After his injuries healed, he followed her out of Medicine Rock Peak. She disguised herself as a physician from the Herbal Hall and kept him and her enemy under constant watch.
But one day, when she went to her enemy's residence, she found two people who looked exactly alike.
The one treated as the respected master showed no sign of poisoning!
*
The son of the Xiao family was frail, so Xiao Ciyi, who looked just like him, had been bought to serve as his double.
One day, while being hunted by the Xiao family's enemies, he fell into Medicine Rock Peak. He thought he would die there, but then he met Zhaoyun.
"Are you a fruit?"
Her teasing remark saved him. When he was badly injured, she cared for him devotedly. Xiao Ciyi had never been treated that way before, and he knew his heart had been moved.
But the good days didn't last long. Word reached them at Medicine Rock Peak that someone was looking for him outside, so he had no choice but to say goodbye.
He thought he would never see her again, but he met her once more at the Xiao residence. Her eyes were fixed on someone else, and only then did he realize he was the stand-in.
He couldn't accept it. For the first time, he wanted to betray the Xiao family.
Note:
1. At first, the female lead is consumed by hatred for her enemy and has no feelings for the male lead. All she wants is revenge.
2. The male lead has been brought low from the start, so he doesn't care who the female lead has feelings for. He just wants to stay by her side.
3. A different take on the stand-in trope. The female lead notices the male lead because he looks like her enemy's son.
Theme: Stay true to your heart
