Yuan Qiu first met Xu Huaizhi in the capital.
That year, a severe drought struck Qingzhou, and not a single crop was harvested. Yuan Qiu fled with her mother all the way to the capital to seek relatives. She had thought she would finally have enough to eat and warm clothes to wear, but a spoiled young nobleman's runaway horse on the capital's streets trampled all her hopes to pieces.
That day, she walked down the capital's busiest street with her lifeless mother on her back.
She saw ladies dressed in fine silks and beggars covered in filth, brightly lit streets and shadowy corners, the moon high in the sky and mud trampled underfoot.
Everything came together perfectly in this city.
Her heart trembled. A wild, burning idea pounded fiercely within her.
At last, she scooped up a handful of clear water, washed the mud from her face, and revealed her lovely features.
The next day, she knelt all night in front of the Zhou residence. With the pity in the young master's eyes as her only help, she entered the Zhou household. To win the Zhou family's young master's favor, Yuan Qiu slipped something into his wine at a banquet. But that night, as she approached him trembling, she heard the clear voice of the man on the bed: "You're so timid, yet you dare to do something like this?"
Xu Huaizhi had seen the concubines of the imperial palace scheme against one another countless times. After becoming crown prince, he also saw many noble young ladies resort to every trick to win the position of crown princess, yet he had never once been taken in.
Except that one time, when he drank a cup of wine he shouldn't have. He heard a beautiful servant girl trembling as she began to undress him, even calling him Young Master Zhou? Xu Huaizhi put an arm around her waist and asked softly, "You're so timid, yet you dare to do something like this?"
Theme: Remaining unstained despite rising from the mud
