Shen Xiyue, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yongchang, had everything that the world envied before she turned sixteen: family background, talent and beauty, and an engagement with Zhao Jinyan, the minister's son. Until a charge of treason was filed, the Hou Mansion collapsed. Her father committed suicide in prison, and her brother was exiled to northern Xinjiang. She and her sick mother and young brother were thrown into the most dilapidated courtyard of her grandfather's family, and became the "daughter of a criminal" who was looked up to by others.
Her aunt withheld expenses, her cousin Liu Ruse took away her marriage, and her former close friends all avoided her. Zhao Jinyan broke off the engagement in public: "Xi Yue, we are separated from each other, so don't get entangled in us anymore."
Shen Xiyue burned all the manuscripts of Huafu poems, leaving only half a volume of "Secret Records of Tianxiang" kept by her mother. She set up a stove in a leaky side yard, started with a fragrant pill and a box of rouge, and used her delicate hands to stir up the world of makeup in the capital.
Seven years later, Mr. Shen, the owner of "Yuehuaji", became famous all over the world. She rebuilt the lintel of the Hou Mansion, took back her brother who had been wronged, and became the leader of the imperial merchants who controlled the north-south trade routes. At the palace banquet, the new emperor Lu Gongnan held her hand and looked at the courtiers in the palace: "Do you know, sir, that the food and grass in the northern border three years ago and the flood relief money in the south of the Yangtze River last year came from Miss Shen's private treasury?"
People who had abandoned her like worn-out shoes in the past knelt down in front of the steps. Shen Xiyue's eyes passed over the trembling Zhao Jinyan and the paper-white Liu Ruse, and finally fell on the emperor's resolute profile beside her.
It turns out that in the deepest darkness, she lit not only her own lamp, but also the pillar of the country who was hiding in the dark and watching over her from afar.
Intention: True nobility is not given by family background, but comes from an unbreakable backbone in difficulties and an undying ambition in adversity. Women's value does not need to be defined by others, but can be self-realized through wisdom and hands.