The Lu family of Jinling has a century-old legacy and has produced countless renowned scholars and great men. Sixth Master Lu Hui is the finest of his generation: a gentleman as flawless as jade, radiant in his feathered robes.
He is held up by the great families as a model for cultivating their young, and is the object of affection for countless young ladies, though they hardly dare hope to win his heart.
Except for the destitute young lady lodging at his estate, his nephew's fiancee. Her intentions are far too obvious. Relying on her captivating beauty, she is also remarkably bold in her methods.
But Lu Hui has always been upright and restrained. The eyes that drift toward him, rippling with meaning one moment and none the next, leave him utterly unmoved.
*
The Yue family has fallen on hard times, and Yue Hang is living under someone else's roof.
No matter how hard she tries to please everyone, she cannot stop her childhood sweetheart and fiance from changing his heart.
Heartbroken, Yue Hang decides not to hang herself from this crooked tree.
Lu Hui once did her a kindness, and she never meant to set her sights on him. But he keeps blocking her way, forcing her to make a move on him.
*
Lu Zhan admires free-spirited women. Unfortunately, the fiancee chosen for him in childhood is proper but not lively, like a flower without fragrance.
He never gives her a kind look when she meekly tries to please him.
Later, while away on official business, Lu Zhan is injured and nearly bleeds to death. But before his eyes appears the memory of her, tearfully asking if it hurt when he was punished by the family.
He holds on to life by sheer will, and upon returning, rushes to see her.
Beneath the pavilion by the rockery, he finds his usually demure and refined fiancee sitting coquettishly on the table, twirling a wolf-hair brush in her slender white fingers and messing up the book in front of the man beside her. Red marks on her wrist stand out starkly...
And his sixth uncle, who never allows women near him and always observes strict propriety, shows not the slightest displeasure.
Theme: A hall full of beautiful people, yet suddenly my gaze meets yours alone.
