The Long Song of a Summer Night

Qiu Shui first met Xia Nianqing in her father's back courtyard. Nianqing wore a lotus-root-white qipao and smiled as she wished her good evening.

The next day, her mother called her into her room and beat her until her skin split open with a thick willow switch. Later, her nursemaid told her it was because the new Concubine Xia had won the master's favor, and the madam had been so furious that she took it out on her.

Yes, it was probably just that.

She should have stayed away from Nianqing for her mother's sake.

But the songs Nianqing played in her father's room each night were too beautiful. They stole away her father, and they stole away the rain that fell on that autumn night.

They said the new Concubine Xia was seductive, amorous, and domineering, and that she had secretly incurred countless love debts behind the master's back, with no regard for gender or propriety.

The master was strange too. He doted on her, yet didn't care about the gossip.

But Miss Qiu, the master's second daughter, cared more than he did. Anyone who said a single bad word about Concubine Xia in front of her would be met with a scowl.

So it was true, she had no preferences at all. Men or women, it made no difference.

Deeply devoted, reserved, steadfast younger pursuer x seductive, rebellious, calculating stepmother figure on the receiving end

The stepmother figure takes the initiative more at first, then the younger one becomes bolder later on.

The two of them are each other's only love, but one secondary couple cannot be together because of the limitations of their era.

The story has some basis in its historical setting, but the research is not rigorous. Apologies to readers who mind.

Theme: Oppose feudalism