Song Yusheng, a modern history student, touches an intricately carved white jade banquet cup from the Great Yu Dynasty in a museum and transmigrates into the body of a noble-born young woman from the Song family with the same name.
She only wanted to see what a banquet looked like a thousand years ago. She never imagined she would tumble headfirst into a grand feast destined to come to an end.
At a palace banquet, she meets Xu Yanci, a young and powerful official. Cool and taciturn, he hides his love in his actions, but bears the blood feud of his family’s extermination. He plots at every turn and never reveals his true feelings. Sensitive and accustomed to standing back to observe the world, she keeps the secret of her transmigration to herself for the rest of her life.
They weather political turmoil, separation and death, and betrayal by everyone around them. Their closest friends all die, but after all their suffering, they finally get to stay together.
Yet even after years of love, they never truly understand each other. They never fully share all their secrets. The transparent barrier deep in their hearts never disappears.
The feast is not yet over, but the cups are already empty. You are by my side, yet it feels as if a thousand mountains lie between us.
All four side couples have tragic endings. A poor scholar and a noblewoman are kept apart by their families. They gaze at each other from afar and never meet again. An imperial guard and a palace maid are exposed for their secret affair, and one dies while the other follows. A prince’s adviser and a young woman from a distinguished family are separated by war and drift apart. A musician and a lord’s daughter are divided by their difference in status. The woman is sent far away in a political marriage, and they never see each other again.
Life is like attending a feast. They rush toward their magnificent reunion without hesitation.
Life is like a feast coming to an end. All the excitement, close friends, openness, and sincerity wither away.
Even if they never part in the end, it is still: an empty feast, fading lights, a lingering melody, and regrets that last year after year.
We gladly attend the feast and accept its end with open hearts. We are fortunate to spend the rest of our lives together, yet fated never to truly know each other.
The feasts of this world always begin in a blaze of glory and end in desolation.
Theme: Life is a feast, and every gathering must end. Even if we stay together, we may not truly know each other. All the excitement and sincerity will eventually wither away at fate’s banquet. And more painful than being parted by life or death is to stand side by side, yet remain forever divided by a Tower of Babel between our hearts.
