An Ruoyu grew up on a country estate.
When she was sixteen, members of the An family from the capital came to tell her that a child had been switched at birth more than ten years ago. In a daze, she became the An family's eldest daughter.
She didn't like the capital.
She didn't like her distant family.
And she liked even less the younger sister who had taken the life that should have been hers.
From then on, An Ruoyu snatched away everything her younger sister loved.
She folded paintings and calligraphy into kites, and smashed fine porcelain just to hear it break.
Later, she even stole An Ruobing's beloved and imprisoned him in a dark room.
Zhu Zhen, the newly crowned third-place scholar, was a man of exceptional promise, as elegant as a noble orchid. He was imprisoned for a year, where An Ruoyu toyed with and humiliated him.
As the years passed, An Ruoyu's reputation became utterly disgraceful.
Everyone hated her, including Zhu Zhen.
She still remembered the venomous look he gave her when she finally let him go, as if he wanted to tear her apart and devour her alive.
--
But fate played its tricks. Zhu Zhen rose through the ranks to become the most powerful official in the court, and he even married An Ruoyu.
A month into their marriage, An Ruoyu gave in to another wicked impulse. Her scheme failed, and she suffered the consequences.
She hit her head and her memories became stuck at age sixteen.
On the day she fell from the carriage, An Ruoyu lay in a pool of blood. After rescuing An Ruobing, everyone left her to die in the wilderness.
As she hovered near death, the scholar she'd always looked down on was the one who reached out to her.
Su Wenqing took her home.
At last, in this vast world, she had a place where she belonged.
--
Zhu Zhen searched the entire city and finally found An Ruoyu in a small courtyard.
With only her sixteen-year-old memories, she had clear eyes and a simple, kind nature. Clutching Su Wenqing's sleeve, she called him big brother, having forgotten everything.
She had even forgotten her own past misdeeds.
Watching the tearful woman before him, Zhu Zhen seemed to go mad. He grabbed An Ruoyu's wrist and pressed it against the whip scars on his chest.
"Forgotten?"
"Then I'll help you remember."
Theme: Keep striving to live.
