After narrowly escaping death, Qiu Niang becomes a young widow and makes a living selling baked flatbreads in Luoyang with the three children her late husband left her...
Qiu Niang's flatbreads are crisp on the outside, chewy inside, and wonderfully fragrant. Her skill earns them a decent living. Her eldest son, Shouzheng, is clever and filial. All she has to do is wait for him to pass the provincial exams and become a recommended scholar, and she'll be a scholar's mother. What could be better?
Then her childhood sweetheart, who had been engaged to her since they were young, comes looking for her, and Qiu Niang can no longer hide who she really is...
Her childhood sweetheart wraps an arm tightly around her waist and asks, "Weren't you my fiancée? Why are you keeping vigil as someone else's widow?"
A former colleague of her father blocks her path. "Either I expose your identity to His Majesty, or you come quietly with me!"
As Qiu Niang struggles to choose, her eldest son, Shouzheng, joins in with his own complaint. "Mother, didn't you say you'd spend your whole life with the three of us siblings?"
Qiu Niang sinks helplessly to the ground. "Oh, Heaven, I only want to live a peaceful life. Why is that so hard?"
*
Pei Xunzhen has a childhood sweetheart. He's dreamed of marrying her since they were children, but ten years ago, her family fell into ruin after being implicated in a case, and she vanished.
Certain she was still alive, Pei Xunzhen searched for her for ten years. At last, they meet again at a flatbread shop in Luoyang.
But she's become a widow, and she's raising three children for someone else...
She was his childhood sweetheart, so how did she end up widowed for another man?
A widow can always marry again!
Wait, isn't that his superior? What is he doing in Luoyang?
Pei Xunzhen asks the good people of Luoyang for advice: What should a man do when the woman he loves is so popular? (Falls to the ground sobbing)
Apart from her father, the three men who have had the greatest influence on Su Wanyin are:
The first is her childhood sweetheart, Pei Xunzhen. He accepts everything about her and says that his Wanyin deserves the very best in the world.
As Pei Xunzhen sees it, she can be fiery, but no one is allowed to bully her. She can keep vigil as another man's widow; he still has a chance. He can even accept remaining in the shadows for now, and work hard to make their relationship honorable.
But in the end, he holds back his pain and tells her that even if they can't be husband and wife, they can still be family. All he wants is for her to live a happy life!
The second is Li Chang. He rarely speaks and only acts. He does only what he believes is right. He tells her not to trust anyone, not even him, and Su Wanyin only remembers the second half.
The third is Zhang Shouzheng, the son her bargain-bin husband left her. He says that no man in this world is worth relying on, but the three siblings will always be there for her.
Theme: Life has to go on
"The exchange of looks, Liang..." Hehe, I just have to figure it out [Let me be healthy]