Moonlight Over the Lonely Peak

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[Synopsis]

In the dynasty's final years, the court was collapsing, regional warlords eyed one another like hungry tigers, and the military governors of the thirteen provinces sharpened their weapons and readied their troops.

In the blink of an eye, Chang'an's jade palaces and jeweled towers became nothing more than a mound of earth beside the Wei River.

"Shen Qiao was originally an orphan of the Liang imperial clan, the child of a condemned prince. After the late emperor ascended the throne, she fled to the southern lands of Chu and lived under an assumed name for more than a decade. At the end of the Yuanling era, she headed north to the capital. Though she was supposed to be under confinement, she managed to deceive the late emperor and his ministers, enter the court as an official, and rise swiftly through the ranks."

"This woman was born under a curse that killed her father. As a child, she mixed with all sorts of people, and she was deeply calculating and insatiably ambitious. Had she not angered Heaven by usurping a man's place, the previous dynasty might not have fallen into its twilight years. Xuanji, you took the wrong path for a woman like her. It was a foolish choice."

Yet Deng Xuanji suddenly remembered the years when they had once depended on each other for survival, and those long, cold nights when they had huddled together beneath a thin quilt. Countless times, Shen Qiao had held his hand tightly and said, "The tides rise and fall, and the moon waxes and wanes. How can life be without regrets? Even if the emperor distrusts us, as long as our hearts are one, we have all the happiness we could ask for."

Now, would the female chancellor, adorned with sword and cap in Jiangling, ever feel for even a moment that her life was complete, even without him by her side?

[Heroine: Though the lotus withers, her resolve does not; though snow lies in her path, her heart does not change.]

[Hero: Far away, along an endless road, his heart is clear as heaven and earth.]

#The early chapters feature plenty of everyday life at a medical clinic. This is not a wish-fulfillment story, and there are many plotlines.

#I've done my best to research the medical content, but please don't take it as fact.

--Preorder: "The Flowerpin Road to Chang'an"--

He Tingliu had always known that some people were born impossible to overlook.

And Li Weiying was one of them.

Ten years after they parted, he finally received news of her, but it was news of her death.

He refused to believe it.

So he set out on a long journey, unconcerned that Weiying had once been his elder brother's betrothed, or that he was afflicted with a serious, chronic illness and could barely walk.

He sailed a thousand miles south, determined to see her remains with his own eyes before he would give up.

Heaven was merciless, making him cross the Five Ridges and search everywhere in vain.

Heaven was kind, too. When the crabapple blossoms fell like snow, a twist of fate finally brought him face to face with someone from his past.

*

Li Weiying was born into a powerful family and was exceptionally gifted from a young age. It was no wonder she grew proud and competitive, always striving to be the best. But a tree that stands taller than the forest is often the first to be felled.

During ten years of drifting from place to place, she served as an aide in various prefectures. Yet an old incident in Chang'an meant that she was always viewed with suspicion.

The day-in, day-out grind of petty, complicated duties finally taught her to read people's expressions and hide her talents.

So when she completely changed her identity and went north disguised as a man to take up an official post, even old friends failed to recognize her when they met face to face.

Only the sickly, lame painter noticed her gazing for a long time at the scholars traveling to the capital for the examinations. He picked a flower and tucked it into her hair.

"A pearl covered in dust is no fault of yours. A point hidden in a pouch will eventually see the light of day."

In the soft spring rain, she looked back beneath a crabapple tree, its blossoms dusting her clothes like snow.

It was He Tingliu.

He was only a day older than her. He had never called her sister-in-law, but he always loved acting like her big brother.

They had been childhood friends, after all.

*

Officials are jade, while clerks are tiles; officials are branches, while clerks are vines.

That year, Li Weiying went from a favored child of Heaven to a woman disgraced in the eyes of all. From a lonely mountain, she gazed toward Chang'an.

Tiles and stones, once covered in dust, can be refined into porcelain.

Vines and weeds, though they have nothing to climb, can still reach for the sky.

Theme: The mountain's shadow darkens, then brightens again as the wind passes