Everyone says Marquis Ningyi Ji Huan is deeply devoted to his wife, who is the only woman he loves. He has never taken a concubine or a second wife, and no woman can get near the Marquis's estate except the legitimate wife's own relatives. They say not even a female fly can enter.
But no one knows that Ji Huan keeps a beautiful, charming mistress in the capital. Every month, he can't help visiting her secluded little courtyard, where he gives free rein to his desire for Yun Yang. At the same time, he resents her shamelessly using her past kindness to bind him to her side.
Fortunately, Yun Yang is meek to a fault. She rarely steps outside, accepts every reward with even greater eagerness, and obediently swallows the contraceptive medicine he sends her. She doesn't even dare talk back to the matron who serves her.
Ji Huan endures the one stain on his life, thinking that on his wife's birthday, he will ask her to grant Yun Yang the status of a secondary wife and bring her into the household.
But before the carriage arrives to take Yun Yang to the estate, his legal wife's skirts sweep through the gates.
That night, Ji Huan flies into a rage. He throws a teacup at Yun Yang and berates her for her talent at pretending, for humiliating the mistress of the house before she has even entered it. Yun Yang falls to her knees again and again, tears pattering down, but says nothing.
Yun Yang is confined to her quarters. Ji Huan storms away, unaware that the matron's negligence that night will lead to a fire in the courtyard.
The door is locked from the outside. Yun Yang dies in the flames. The Marquis of Ningyi is left without a stain on his reputation, but he loses his mind.
Years later, after losing his wife and children, Ji Huan is finally dragged by a friend to a clinic for treatment. He had resisted at first, but when he sees the doctor, half his illness is cured.
Ji Huan grabs Yun Yang, eyes red, and demands to know why she left him. Yun Yang coolly brushes his hand away, then has the patient who respects her send him out.
“I am a physician. I have never married, and I have no family or children. So how could I be the mistress of this lovesick madman?”
Theme: Take your fate into your own hands
