Shen Yun had been obsessed for half her life with her elder brother, Shen Ye.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, she finally gathered the courage to confess her feelings. Her brother's merciless scolding was all she got in return.
"Shameless."
To put an end to her delusions, Shen Ye offered her as a concubine to Xie Zhao, the newly appointed top scholar.
On the day the red bridal sedan left the Shen residence, he stood beneath the corridor with his hands behind his back, never once looking back.
One wrong step, and every step after it was wrong.
*
The inner quarters of the top scholar's residence were another prison.
The principal wife made life difficult for Shen Yun at every turn, treating her as a thorn in her side. Rumors cut like knives, wearing down the bright young woman she once was until she faded into obscurity.
After a vicious plot left her badly injured, Shen Yun fled back to the Shen residence on a rainy night.
Shen Ye cared for her all night, making her mistakenly think her brother might have feelings for her too.
But she was wrong.
Before long, Xie Zhao took her away again.
A jug of rough wine clouded Shen Yun's mind, and they spent a reckless night together.
Soon after, she was implicated in a poetry scandal and condemned to death.
On the day Shen Yun was to be executed at Wumen Gate, Shen Ye passed the imperial examination as the top scholar.
But no one knew that he had refused a marriage proposal in the palace hall, trading his brilliant future for an imperial pardon for her.
He abandoned everything and galloped at full speed, with only one thought in his heart: take her home.
"The imperial decree has arrived! Shen Yun is pardoned!"
The executioner's blade stopped, but Shen Yun lifted her head and faced its edge.
Blood spattered.
The person who hurt her most in this world was him. The person who wanted to save her in the end was him, too.
But Shen Yun would rather die.
With the blade raised at Wumen Gate, looking back on her life, her greatest regret was this:
She had given her foolish love to the wrong person, and made the mistake of loving her own brother.
Theme: This soul will not yield to the dust of the world; through the ages, it stands alone, soaring to the heavens.
