In the second year of Tianhe, Yan Xiang first met Lan Yun.
She was a palace attendant serving the Empress Dowager, punished for a mistake by being made to kneel in the rain.
Through the fine curtain of rain, Lan Yun passed by in a crimson robe and held a paper umbrella over her. In the haze, Yan Xiang managed only a respectful, "Thank you, Lord Lan."
The new emperor seized the throne in a coup and slaughtered the old court's officials. A fire reduced the Mirror Pavilion, once built at immense expense, to ashes.
The Yan clan was locked inside the Mirror Pavilion.
Because Yan Xiang bore a faint resemblance to the new emperor's deceased beloved, he treated her with particular care and attention. Several times he considered bestowing a title on her, but he never won her heart.
What the emperor did not know was that Yan Xiang, who remained beyond his reach, would one dark, rainy night loosen her robes and rest a hand on the shoulder of the new emperor's honored guest, asking softly, "Lan Yun, did I meet you once by the Wei River?"
*
For many days and nights, Lan Yun often dreamed of her.
In his dreams, she was radiant as a lotus, graceful and exquisitely beautiful. One distant glimpse by the Wei River had stayed with him for years.
But Lan Yun could no longer find her. They said the entire Yan clan had perished in the fire at the Mirror Pavilion, and not even the bones of the Yan family's noble daughter remained.
Then came the heavy rain of the second year of Tianhe. As Lan Yun hurried into the palace, she passed the woman who had haunted his dreams. She was drenched by the rain, disheveled, yet the resolve in her eyes had not diminished in the slightest.
"I have someone I love. We come from worlds apart. But I can't find her. She was trapped in the Mirror Pavilion by a great fire."
"But is she really dead?"
*
That year, around the First Frost, he was dressed in thin clothes and traveling along the Wei River to study when he came upon a banquet hosted by a noble. He caught a fleeting glimpse of her in the crowd, never knowing that this brief, breathtaking encounter would occupy his thoughts for years.
"At first, I was down on my luck and had nothing but my sincerity. I only hoped to see her once. Then, time and again, when life and death hung in the balance, she handed me a sharp blade and let me cross the river and burn our boats alongside her."
Reader's Guide:
1. Both leads are virgins, one-on-one romance, happy ending
2. Set in an alternate Tang dynasty
Synopsis posted on February 4, 2024, screenshot saved.
Theme: Rowing upstream against the current
