A Record of Life with a Painter Lover in the 19th Century

Gentle on the outside, melancholic within / stunning mixed-race beauty x aloof, multifaceted painter

[Blurb]

The Parisian aristocratic circles have recently been discussing a woman.

What kind of woman?

A beautiful young widow. Her funeral was her first public appearance, and she captivated all the men there.

Invitations poured into her home, but she attended only one salon, hosted by a banker's wife. The young gentlemen all wagered on who would win her heart.

The result left everyone dumbfounded. She chose an obscure, penniless painter named Morian.

When Elodie was sixteen, her father sent her aboard Count Elton's ship.

From the colonies to Paris, one ship, one man, one transaction. Her father traded her for a step up the social ladder.

She thought that was simply her fate.

Thirteen years passed. She was kept locked away in the count's mansion, never seeing daylight. The maids dragged down the corridor at night never returned. Voices that did not belong to the count came from the locked room. Names and dates burned endlessly in the fireplace.

On the day the count died, she stood by the window and, for the first time, felt that the breeze from the Seine was fresh.

The funeral was her first public appearance. A black veil covered her face as tears slid down her cheeks. All of Paris thought she was just a poor widow, spoiled by a life of confinement.

She chose a penniless painter as her lover. The whole city laughed at her for losing her mind.

No one knew that thirteen years ago, they had met on a colonial shore. As a boy, he painted her profile sitting on the pier and said that one day he would take her away.

On the day they had agreed to elope, she couldn't get out of the house. Her father had him tied up and put aboard another ship, then threw him into the sea, where he barely survived.

One was sent to a cage in Paris, the other cast into the abyss beneath the sea. The same pair of hands tore them apart for thirteen years.

Now he lived in her mansion as her lover, painting her features and sharing in her wealth. At night, when she woke with his sleeve clenched in her hand, he looked down at her, restrained and cold.

But they had reunited too late. Elodie had already gone mad. She wanted to make Morian famous in the time she had left, never imagining that he would keep holding her hand and telling her not to fall into ruin.

Before they reunited, Morian believed in only three things: art, money, and revolution. Hatred had kept him alive; his art spoke for the dead; money was for paving the way; and revolution was the fate he had chosen for himself.

After their reunion, inspiration was her face, his goal was her late husband's money, and he would take her along on the road ahead. The day she stood up for the displaced poor, he watched her from a distance in the crowd, a light in his eyes that even he failed to notice.

P.S. The female lead is a virgin; the male lead is not.

Emotional intensity: 200%.

Theme: Strive with resilience and take control of your fate.