Late spring in Jiangnan, with drizzle falling without end. Su Wanning was the legitimate daughter of the Su family of Suzhou, gentle in appearance and skilled at painting. In her youth, she was betrothed to Shen Yanci, then a spirited young man serving in the army. Back then, spring's green mountains seemed within reach, and a future filled with love lay before them. Beneath a peach tree, they made a private promise: once he had quelled the border wars and returned home after laying down his armor, they would spend their lives together, hand in hand, enjoying Jiangnan's changing seasons year after year.
But a sudden storm swept through the court, where power struggles brewed beneath the surface. A single piece of forged evidence unleashed a calamity. The Shen family was framed, and the Su family was implicated as well. Rumors and carefully engineered misunderstandings came between them. Shen Yanci believed Su Wanning had broken their engagement and betrayed his family. Seeing his cold, resolute face, Su Wanning thought he had long since cast aside their old affection. They had no time to hear each other's explanations before the turmoil of the age and the cruelty of human nature tore them apart.
Ten years passed in the blink of an eye. Shen Yanci fought his way through bloodshed on the battlefield, becoming a powerful Grand General Who Guards the Nation through his distinguished military service. Weathered by the years, he was now quiet and hard as stone. After her family was upheaved, Su Wanning shed her girlish softness and was left all alone, hiding a heart full of pain.
They met again at a palace banquet in Jinling. Amid dazzling lights and a bustling crowd, they looked at each other from afar. The sweetness of the past and the pain of their parting surged up together. Countless grievances and years of longing choked their throats. There was so much they wanted to ask, so much they needed to say, but as their lips parted, tears began streaming down first: before words came tears.
Love and hatred intertwined, and old grievances remained unresolved. The truth of the past had been hidden beneath layer upon layer of deception, and the wrongs they had suffered concealed unspeakable reasons. His coldness had been a way of protecting her through restraint; her silence had been a helpless compromise. The mountains and rivers remained, but everything else had changed. Dust covered the vows they had made beneath the peach tree.
They struggle in the whirlpool of political intrigue, caught between wounds they cannot forget and a deep love that has never faded. The misunderstandings gradually unravel, and the truth slowly emerges, but their shattered years can never be restored as they were. Will they each walk away, trapped in a lifetime of regret, or let go of their grudges and find a place of peace after all the devastation, rekindling the love they never got to finish?
Theme: Historical Romance
