Progressive young gentleman x conservative concubine
01.
In 1930, He Zhenshu, as usual, was learning how to become a proper concubine, even though Master Liu had never paid her any attention.
Master Liu needed a favor from the Shen family, so he held a banquet in honor of Second Young Master Shen, Shen Youjin.
To show his sincerity, Master Liu had everyone in his household, young and old, attend the dinner, including his glamorous concubines. He Zhenshu had joined the household most recently and ranked sixteenth among them.
At the table, Master Liu asked Shen Youjin what kind of girl he liked, thumping his chest as he promised to find one to wait on him.
He Zhenshu had a simple face and lowered eyes. Among the concubines, all dressed to the nines, she hardly stood out.
Yet Shen Youjin glanced at her casually and said, "I like the kind of girl you have here, your sixteenth concubine."
Hearing this from among the crowd, He Zhenshu felt as if she had fallen into an icy abyss.
But the part of her wrist Shen Youjin had touched suddenly burned, stinging like fire.
At the time, she didn't yet know how deeply Shen Youjin would mark her life.
She only hated his thoughtless words, and hated him with all her heart.
02.
A few months later, a piece of news spread:
The sixteenth concubine from Master Liu's household had eloped with a man.
03.
For many years afterward, He Zhenshu often wondered what Shen Youjin meant to her.
At last, in her twilight years, she wrote the answer in her memoirs:
[Meeting Second Young Master Shen was the turning point that opened up a bright new world for me.]
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Theme: A woman's epic.
