★ A Sea of Hatred and a Sky of Passion
Fu Jianfei first met Xu Zhuoshui at the execution ground.
She carried a bamboo basket to bring her father his last meal before his execution, but saw a man in a purple robe and jade belt lounging on the raised platform, deciding who would live and who would die.
Rotten vegetables and curses rained down on him. He only smiled faintly, as though he heard nothing.
At the time, she thought a man like him belonged in hell.
*
Later, just as Fu Jianfei had wished, Xu Zhuoshui became a villain steeped in wickedness, a treacherous official who framed loyal ministers and was despised by everyone.
Fu Jianfei carried a lantern to visit him in the deepest part of the Ministry of Justice prison.
There she saw that the man who had once been the talk of the capital, the moon countless young women had dreamed of but never dared hope to reach, now had every finger bone shattered. Not a patch of unbroken skin remained on his back.
Xu Zhuoshui raised his bloodstained lashes and somehow still managed to smile. "Have you come to claim your share of my flesh and blood?"
Fu Jianfei crouched down and gently wiped the blood and filth from his forehead with a handkerchief.
"Xu Zhuoshui, don’t lower your head. I’ll fight to win you a chance to live."
*
Xu Zhuoshui spent years as a notorious traitor, a demon everyone wanted dead. Every step he took followed a path laid out in advance, bringing him a foot closer to death.
He had calculated every move. The one thing he had never accounted for was the daughter of the Fu family, Fu Jianfei.
At the execution ground, Xu Zhuoshui had spared her life, telling her to live well and come seek revenge on him.
Later, she really did come.
Amid her painstaking schemes, Fu Jianfei discovered his secret.
Xu Zhuoshui could never tell whether the hatred or pity in Fu Jianfei’s clear eyes when she looked at him.
But he knew she should never have come to save him.
She should have hated him all her life.
Theme: Knowing it cannot be done, yet doing it anyway.
