Zhu Fuwei is a renowned beauty in the capital, peerlessly lovely and breathtakingly graceful, yet cold and taciturn by nature, making people afraid to approach her.
And yet she takes a particular liking to the illegitimate son recently brought back by the Lan family.
Lan Qingyan hates Zhu Fuwei.
Ever since the first time she saw him, this woman has pestered him again and again.
Like a plaster that won't come off, she simply won't leave him alone. Lan Qingyan wishes he could get as far away from her as possible.
Until that day...
An assassin's arrow is about to pierce his chest when Zhu Fuwei, the very woman he despises, rushes forward and takes the deadly shot for him.
Lan Qingyan panics. The woman in his arms is bleeding heavily, her breath faint, yet she gazes at him with a smile and says in relief, "Young Master Lan, thank goodness you're all right."
For the first time in many years, Lan Qingyan's still heart is thrown into disarray.
He thinks to himself:
Zhu Fuwei must love him deeply. He should treat her better from now on.
*
Later, his elder brother Lan Xunzhi, who fell off a cliff and was presumed dead with no body to be found, is rescued and returns to the capital alive.
He sees it with his own eyes.
Zhu Fuwei clings to Lan Xunzhi, weeping bitterly. "Big Brother Lan, you've finally come back. Don't leave me again."
Watching that face, so much like his own, Lan Qingyan snaps the golden hairpin he had planned to give her in his hand.
If he was already dead, why did he have to come back?
It doesn't matter. He can just make sure he dies again.
Theme: Even when faced with setbacks, keep striving to live.
