Frost Beside the Inkstone

Su Qingwan is the most renowned legitimate daughter of the prime minister in the capital. Gentle and composed, with a soft heart in her youth, she meets the impoverished scholar Shen Yanci one cold night in a bookshop.

At the time, he is poor and alone, studying hard by lamplight. A thin frost often gathers beside his inkstone, and he works at his desk until late every night. Proud and unyielding, he never grovels before anyone. She cherishes his talent and admires his integrity, quietly giving him ink, brushes, and charcoal. They exchange poems and letters, and she secretly entrusts him with her heart. In private, they promise to spend their lives together, waiting for him to pass the imperial examinations so they can ask for a marriage match and stay by each other's side year after year, true to their first feelings.

When the spring examinations results are announced, Shen Yanci comes first in the palace examination and becomes the talk of the capital.

But the court is rife with intrigue and the struggle for imperial power rages on. Fearing the prime minister's overwhelming influence, the emperor forces Shen Yanci into his political game, threatening to slaughter the entire Su family and granting him a marriage to a royal princess.

Overnight, everything falls apart, and their love is buried beneath the dust.

To keep her family safe and sound, Shen Yanci hides his love through unbearable pain and cuts off their past with his own hands. He acts cold and distant in public, deliberately drawing a clear line between himself and Su Qingwan. He lets rumors ruin her reputation and allows her to suffer the mockery and disdain of those around her. No one knows that each silent night, he sits alone in an empty hall, frost gathering on his inkstone. Every word he writes is her name, and he tears up page after page of longing, daring not to show a trace of tenderness.

She waits for him to return with the spring breeze, but all that arrives is a grand procession with ten miles of wedding finery, escorting him to marry the princess.

Her ardent love is finally covered in frost. Su Qingwan loses hope, gathers up every trace of affection, shuts her doors to visitors, and buries the stirrings of her youthful heart deep in the past.

After years of political intrigue and upheaval at court, Shen Yanci advances step by step, quietly plotting until he has purged the court of corrupt officials, gained power over the realm, and broken free of every restraint.

But when he returns, weathered by hardship, the girl whose eyes once held such warmth has long since shed every trace of passion. Her heart is still as frost, and nothing stirs within her anymore.

Frost falls beside the inkstone; years pass in ink and brushwork.

He won the game of power and triumphed over the world's shifting fortunes. The only thing he lost was the woman who warmed his inkstone for him on that cold night long ago.

A youthful love begins with a meeting beside an inkstone and ends in a lifetime of regret.

Frost covers ink and brush, burying all their longing and every year they can never get back.

Theme: Historical romance