Chang'an in its golden age was nothing more than a grand dream beneath vermilion walls.
On the eve of the Zhou dynasty replacing the Tang, rumors of danger fill the air, and everyone lives in fear.
They are footnotes in the history books, the darkest shadows behind the protagonists.
There is Xue Yi, the eldest legitimate son of the Hedong Xue clan, who believes all his life that "the emperor should rule with a light touch, and the aristocratic clans should govern together." He walks upright into a deadly game and never regrets it, even at the end;
there are Pei Xingjian and Lady Kudi, a married couple twenty-five years apart in age, who write the most restrained yet heart-stirring love letters amid the smoke of battlefields and the schemes of the inner chambers;
there is Lady Du, who goes from being the daughter of a disgraced official who faked her death to escape, to a sixth-rank serving woman in Princess Taiping's residence. She can see through people's hearts, but not the calamity called "Bolü." In the end, she bites her lip in silence beneath the shadow of Chang'an's walls;
there is Lady Dou, the unfulfilled fiancée of Crown Prince Li Hong. Amid the bones of Ashina Yantuo and the cries of two children, she chooses to don a nun's robes, praying for the late crown prince and burying herself along with him;
there are Lady Wang, Lady Wei, and Lady Zheng. One guards the last glory of the aristocracy with her swordsmanship, one uses musical illusions to navigate political intrigue, and the other becomes a legend with her mastery of medicine and poison. They are the sharpest and most tender footnotes to the women of the High Tang.
And when Yang Paifeng's staff sweeps across the summit of Mount Hua, Liu Haonan (Yelü Haonan), caught between illusion and reality, finally sees that so-called "restoration" is nothing but a cover for personal ambition.
When the dream ends, who will still be there, guarding the jade pendant that was never finished, listening to the wind blow across Mount Li?
Theme: The spirit of the High Tang, and shattered jade.
