Everyone knows the two peerless beauties of Jinghua.
Han Yuci, the only daughter of the Han family of civil officials, lost her mother as a child. Raised among books, she has a compassion and clarity almost divine in nature. Gentle and warm, she nonetheless has the proud bearing of a noble family's only daughter, and is celebrated throughout the capital as a bright, clear moon.
Yue Miaozhao, the legitimate daughter of the Yue family of military nobles, was born into a household that values virtue and martial prowess. Well-read and courteous, she is gentle yet strong, sincere and forthright with others, a rare, pure breeze in this world.
The two first met at a royal banquet when they were seven. The civil and military houses, equal in standing, became close. They spent year after year together at noble family tea parties, court banquets, strolls through the city, and literary gatherings at the academy, becoming confidantes whose bond the entire capital envied.
At a grand tea party hosted by the Yue residence, the wandering Daoist Gu Zhiwei was invited to read pulses and examine souls. With a single remark, he exposed a shocking destiny buried across two lifetimes.
In her previous life, Han Yuci was a thousand-year-old spirit snake who had devoted herself to goodness, named Luosheng. Trapped between life and death, she was unjustly captured by the ancient powerhouse Yan Yueyao. Her scales were stripped while she still lived to make a fan, her bones carved into its frame, and her soul shattered as she endured endless torment through the ages.
Yue Miaozhao was Yan Yueyao reborn. In her previous life, she had personally forged the bloodstained bone fan. Her soul and fate were inherently at odds with Han Yuci's, and the Daoist bluntly declared that she was the calamity destined to bring Han Yuci ruin, repeatedly urging them to end their friendship and keep their distance.
With a sea of blood behind them and fate's warning before them, all the noble families and court officials in the capital urged Han Yuci to avoid danger.
But Han Yuci knew the difference clearly in her heart: Yan Yueyao was an ancient sinner burdened with guilt, while Yue Miaozhao in this life was the pure, untainted Mochou. Roses and Chinese roses could never be mistaken for one another.
She swallowed the unbearable pain of being skinned and having her bones carved, hiding every torment and inner demon. To Yue Miaozhao, she remained exactly as before, while silently resolving that as long as Yue Miaozhao remembered nothing, all would be well. Even if one day she recalled everything, it would make no difference to Han Yuci.
Everyone else feared fate and shunned disaster, but she alone willingly embraced this bond, which others saw as a moth flying into a flame, and cherished it without reservation.
She secretly pored over ancient texts and searched historical sites, wanting only to recover the Luosheng bone fan forged from her own flesh and blood. She sought no revenge, only the return of her scattered soul.
As the years passed, Yue Miaozhao was increasingly plagued by bloody nightmares, and her soul stirred restlessly. At last, one day, the memories of her past life were completely unlocked.
All the memories of her cold, obsessive self from a thousand years ago, who had forged the fan and committed those crimes, flooded her mind. In an instant, she understood all the suffering and restraint Han Yuci had borne alone.
The sins of the past returned to the ancient mountains and seas; the sincerity and tenderness of this life overcame a destiny spanning the ages.
The grievances of two lifetimes were finally reconciled. They stayed by each other's side, year after year, morning and night: true confidantes in this world, forever Mochou.
Theme: Do not judge people's hearts by fate, or bind this life to the last. Even after enduring the world's greatest suffering, remain true to a gentle heart. This story portrays a pure bond between confidantes, built on mutual acceptance and standing together against fate, showing that sincere hearts can break the shackles of heaven's will.
