More than a decade ago, hundreds of spies planted by the Jin Kingdom in Lin'an, the Southern Song capital, were exposed by a leaked list and nearly wiped out in a purge by the Jianghu faction Greenhaven Pavilion. The survivors scattered, their whereabouts unknown.
She was truly blessed. She made a name for herself at a young age, but had no grand ambitions.
She casually left Greenhaven Pavilion, inherited from her birth father, in a monk's hands to manage. Her adoptive father was powerful and doted on her, so she lived a leisurely life, amusing herself by landscaping gardens and painting handsome men when bored. Her only extravagant wish was to walk across the beautiful land in simple cloth shoes.
But as the saying goes, those who fail to plan ahead are bound to face trouble soon.
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He was a young prince of the Jin Kingdom, neglected from the day he was born, and the older he got, the more twisted he became.
He tried horseback riding and archery, then abandoned them, but he alone remained devoted to Han culture. So he took on a false identity and infiltrated the Southern Song. At nineteen, he placed third in the palace examinations, then entered the court and stirred up a storm.
When word reached her chambers that her betrothed had placed third in the examinations, she drew a black face on a piece of silk and sighed. "The top candidates of every dynasty were selected for their handsome looks. How did things come to this? The scholars of our dynasty are a sorry lot."
On their wedding night, red candles burned bright. He had only just begun undressing when he fled in terror, as though he had seen a ghost.
The next day, the wedding became a funeral.
·
The shuttle goes back and forth, year after year.
She mourned her father at his tomb for three years. When she heard that he had climbed the ranks and become a powerful court official, she merely smiled indolently and let it pass.
It was only much later that he finally remembered he still had a beautiful wife at home.
But there she was, drunk among the peonies, paintings scattered at her feet, her hair black as satin, her face like a spring peach, her skin fairer than fragrant snow. In a delicate voice, she called, "My dear, care to share a drink?" She didn't look like an abandoned wife at all.
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A lazy beauty with little ambition and a gift for painting landscapes + a prince whose looks and talents surpass his virtue, unfit for his position and afraid the world will ever know war
Theme: A legendary tale of the Southern Song
Come on, DaDa. Is there any reader group or Weibo where I can contact you?