"Ci from the Ember Palace" is set in the ancient palace and tells the story of a love-hate entanglement between Shen Qingci, the daughter-in-law of the Imperial Tutor, and the emperor Xiao Che, which began with deep love and ended in ashes.
Shen Qingci once had a pure and passionate love with the young Xiao Che. He allowed her to sleep together on the throne of a phoenix, and she believed that he would be the only one in her life. However, the emperor's power and trade-offs shattered the old promise - in order to win over the military-powerful Duke of Zhen, Xiao Che made his daughter Lin Waner his queen, demoted Shen Qingci and moved her to another place, and when she was framed and poisoned, she was thrown into the cold palace. After three years of silence, she lost her unborn child and exhausted her love for him, leaving only scars on her body and obsession with the family injustice.
When the Lin family's conspiracy to collude with the enemy and treason was exposed, Xiao Che tried to make amends and vindicate the Shen family, but found that Shen Qingci's heart had long been filled with despair. When the border was in crisis, Shen Qingci went to southern Xinjiang on his own and persuaded the tribal leaders to withdraw their troops. He exchanged his life for peace in the world, but he himself was killed in an ambush and turned into dust.
Xiao Che had thousands of miles of power, but lost his Qingci forever. For the rest of his life, he guarded the empty palace, chewing the bitter fruits of love and miss in the courtyard full of orchid grass and endless regret, until the end of his life. The wind in the deep palace cannot blow away this tragic song about power, sacrifice and eternal regret.
Concept: The concept of "Ci Gong Ci" is deeply rooted in the conflict between power and emotion, love and the eternal regret of missing out:
Under the authority of the emperor, personal love often became a victim of trade-offs. Xiao Che's helplessness and Shen Qingci's despair tore apart the fragility of "love" in the deep palace - even if there is an unforgettable promise, it may be crushed by suspicion, use and self-sacrifice under the weight of the country.
The story uses Shen Qingci's sacrifice and Xiao Che's regret for the rest of his life to examine the illusion of "getting": the emperor who dominates the world will never be able to keep the person he wants to protect; possession and harm in the name of love will only result in eternal vacancy. It tears apart the cruel truth behind the gorgeous palace walls: some misses last a lifetime; some scars cannot be healed until death. And those deep feelings that are annihilated in the whirlpool of power are the most painful explanations of human nature and destiny.
