In the thirtieth year of the Great Qi dynasty, its founding owed much to the support of two powerful clans.
The Jiang family of Lingnan is venerable and esteemed, and wealthy enough to rival a nation. The Ji family of Jiangbei is immensely influential, with visitors thronging its gates. The Jiang and Ji families are bitter enemies, and have openly and covertly fought each other for many years.
As the legitimate granddaughter of the Jiang family, Jiang Tanqing takes charge of the clan after her grandfather's death. She punishes the wicked, raises her young brother, and contends with the Ji family, her sworn enemy.
After a year in power, her heart and mind are both battered and worn. The only comfort she can find is the immortal beneath Yanshan, who knows how to heal the sick and save lives. He is as handsome as a jade ornament, courteous to everyone, and once saved her life. She wants to make him her companion for life.
Unfortunately, she loves him, but he doesn't love her back. His heart is devoted to studying medicine and saving lives. He is noble and upright, a man who would never be tempted by beauty.
On the night she decides to let him go, Jiang Tanqing gets drunk and does something reckless to him. Afterward, she feels a little regretful. It was like swallowing a meal without chewing: she never even found out what the immortal was like in bed.
They meet again at the New Year's court gathering hosted by the emperor. The immortal is there as the Ji family's representative, seated among the honored guests.
The man she once regarded as a benefactor and confidant has become her sworn enemy.
Jiang Tanqing knows she mustn't fall for the son of her enemy, and keeps a clear line between them.
Ji Lingheng, the third son of the Ji family, studied medicine for his mother and became a physician with miraculous healing skills. When conflict broke out within the family, he hid away on Yanshan, where medicinal herbs covered the mountains, to live in peace under an assumed name.
One day, he happened to save a woman. She said she would repay him by giving herself to him. Saving people was a physician's duty, and he wanted no reward. But he couldn't resist her throwing herself into his arms. In the end, he lost both his body and his heart.
When he was ready to take responsibility and ask for her hand, she vanished without a trace.
To find her, he returned to the Ji family. Three months later, at a court gathering, she brazenly appeared before him under a different name.
Ji Lingheng then learned that she was the one who had set the Ji family against itself. This woman was as sly as a fox and lied as easily as she breathed. He absolutely couldn't let her stay and cause trouble for anyone else. Besides, she had already harmed him deeply. He might as well let her ruin him completely.
But the woman who had once been tender as water, breathing soft words into his ear, was now as cold as ice, impossible to approach.
Under the bright moon, beside a blue-stone wall, Jiang Tanqing is cornered and pressed for an answer. "If I regret it, does what you said before about wanting to take me as your husband still count?"
"It doesn't count anymore."
She doesn't know that the refined gentleman of the past becomes more ruthless than anyone when he loses control.
Theme: Time does not fail those who persevere.
