The Charming Flower

Ning Yuan came from a family of scholars. He had been upright and refined since childhood, elegant as an orchid or a jade tree. His father was the chief minister, and the powerful families of the capital all vied to form marriage ties with him. Yet when he proposed to his cousin Yun Yurong, he was cruelly rejected.

His cousin said she was free-spirited by nature and disliked being constrained by the Ning family's rules, so there was no need to force the match.

Six years later, after years of drought, corrupt officials embezzled disaster-relief grain and funds. Yun An, the governor, secretly hurried to the capital to expose their crimes. But he was ambushed on the way, and his daughter, Yun Yurong, narrowly escaped with the evidence and took refuge in the chief minister's residence.

That day, Ning Yuan was to be married by imperial decree, taking a commandery princess as his bride.

At the wedding banquet, Yun Yurong saw that the bride looked just like her and seemed to be the very female assassin who had ambushed her on the road. The matter was too serious to raise without solid evidence, so she sneaked into the bridal chamber to test her suspicions. As it turned out, the bride really was up to no good. When discovered, she fled, leaving Yun Yurong alone in the bridal chamber.

Yun Yurong knew that losing the bride after an imperial marriage decree was a serious offense. With no evidence to identify the bride, she had no choice but to put on the phoenix coronet and bridal robes and take her place.

As she spent time with the groom, Ning Yuan, she gradually gave herself away. Fortunately, Ning Yuan agreed to pretend to be her husband for the time being, using the customary visit to her parents' home as a chance to investigate the bride's identity.

To avoid drawing attention along the way, the two had to eat and stay together.

Though his cousin was as beautiful as a flower, Ning Yuan kept to a gentleman's propriety and did not dare cross the line.

The case was about to be solved, and they were about to part. Ning Yuan reminded her again and again: "The court is in turmoil. After you return home, stay there and don't come back to the capital."

She thought that once everything was settled, they would each go their separate ways.

But later, when she returned to her hometown, her father brought out a thick stack of letters, every one written by Ning Yuan. Only then did she understand that she was the person he had thought of for so many years.

Theme: Love is found in the everyday, and it is also staying together through prosperity and decline.