When the Peach Blossoms Fade

Her father is the greatest young nobleman under heaven, renowned for his devotion. Her mother is the female lord of Yue, a woman every bit as capable as any man.

She is talented and beautiful, but also ruthless. The world is divided in its praise and blame of her. She knows only that she cares nothing for the title of princess; all she wants is to find someone who will stay by her side until they are old. Yet for the sake of her country and family, she brushes past danger time and again.

A young lord rides to her on a bamboo hobbyhorse, wanting her to belong to him alone.

The handsome King of Qi scatters stars like rain with a breath, wanting to take her away with him.

A wicked prince like him is so hard to read, his heart full of unspoken thoughts, with no one to care for him even when he is drunk.

Indeed:

Grapes and fine wine, tulips in bloom. I recall the past, and find it has become a wound.

Once I sat alone by a dim red candle in the curtained bedchamber; once I searched with you by the pond for the last fading blossoms.

I dread dusk, then suddenly dusk comes again. How can my heart not break?

Young and carefree, I never knew the wind was coming, ready to ruffle the spring waters in the pond.

When love begins, how can I ask what brought you here, when it makes people pledge their lives to one another?

If we had only met at first, we might have sung with swords in hand. How could we have known the taste of sorrow?

At our next meeting, you were like the wind. Where we lingered, lush grass grew thick, yet it was not where my thoughts remained.

Is meeting not worse than never meeting? A few strands of silver hair, and beauty not yet faded.

Do you know that a smile half-hidden by a frown can break a heart most of all?