Fallen Feathers, Startled Strings

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The Feather Falls, the Strings Quiver

Blurb:

Female lead's perspective:

The first time Ye Ling saw Wei Xianjing, she was wearing a headdress woven from pheasant feathers. Alongside the troupe leader, she knelt on the ground, kowtowing over and over, begging the offended noble to forgive them.

All the guests were furious, but Wei Xianjing stepped forward to take charge. He said the troupe leader had been lured by the promise of a small profit and used by someone else, disturbing the young lady. He had the troupe leader thrown into prison as punishment. Then Ye Ling, still dazed, accepted her indenture papers. From that day on, she was no longer a young slave whom the troupe leader could scold and beat at will.

She was one among the countless commoners who had received Wei Xianjing's kindness.

Through the vulgar feather curtain, she carefully glanced back and etched the jade-faced young heir of the marquis's household into her heart.

Years later, Ye Ling used her life savings to bribe the guards at the execution grounds, bringing her makeshift troupe together for one more meeting with Wei Xianjing, who was about to be executed.

But this time, she stood on a mast at the edge of the crowded marketplace, looking down at Wei Xianjing as he waited to be beheaded. Before the fallen Wei Xianjing and the people of the capital who had come to bid him farewell, Ye Ling performed her most dazzling act yet: a rebirth from the ashes.

She was just one of countless commoners, powerless to defy the imperial decree and restore justice to Wei Xianjing. All she could do was use the performing arts she had spent her whole life pursuing and perfecting to put on one final show for her benefactor, who did not even remember her.

A slender rope was tied around her waist as she leapt from the mast. The wind brushed the feathers tied around her chest and arms, and the midday sun dried the tears on her face.

She was like a blazing phoenix feather, suddenly seared into the depths of Wei Xianjing's heart.

Male lead's perspective:

For the first seven years of his life, Wei Xianjing was raised in luxury. His father was the emperor's most trusted adopted son, and his mother was a renowned beauty from the Duke of Zhenguo's household.

But when he was eight, the court changed hands. A new emperor ascended the throne, his father died suddenly outside the city, and his mother was forced to change her name and become the new emperor's empress.

Adopted by an old friend of his parents, he became the heir to a marquis's household, hated by the new emperor. In other people's eyes, Marquis Heir Wei was elegant, refined, and unrivaled in renown, only unfortunate in his fate. But who knew that every day when he opened his eyes, he was waiting for the emperor's poisoned wine, never knowing when it would arrive?

He was the most invisible presence in the world.

Until Ye Ling, like a handful of fresh fire in a snowy night, suddenly lit up his eyes in the abyss.

Theme: Persevere through hardship and never forget your original purpose