Novel Blurb:
Several years after the new emperor ascends the throne, the retired emperor dies under mysterious circumstances. With each new emperor comes a new circle of officials, and the new emperor begins settling scores with the old ministers from the retired emperor's era whose political views and loyalties differed from his own.
Many prominent clans make the confiscation list. At the top of the list is Shen Xing, the Grand Secretary and head of the cabinet, whose estate is confiscated on charges of treason. Shen Shiyi's family consequently falls into decline. After the confiscation, every man in the Shen family is imprisoned, sent to serve in the army, or exiled, while all the women are taken to brothels and entertainment houses, condemned to lowly status.
By a twist of fate, however, the Shen family's legitimate daughter, Shiyi, catches the eye of Feng Jue, the newly appointed Number Three Scholar. He buys her back to the Feng household as a concubine's maid. This tale of a noble young master rescuing a fallen beauty becomes the talk of the town, and is even written into illustrated storybooks.
Shen Shiyi is deeply beloved by the Number Three Scholar. He takes her wherever he goes and cares for her with the utmost tenderness. There are even rumors that, for her sake, Feng resisted his parents' demands that he marry for two years, leaving the position of principal wife vacant for the entire time.
Later, Shen Shiyi survives against all odds and gives the Feng family a son, born of a concubine. She once naively believed that having a son would raise her status, and that the Number Three Scholar would surely promote her from concubine to wife.
But everything changes completely when the princess who was his childhood sweetheart and beloved first love returns from a political marriage abroad.
He is no longer interested in her and no longer visits her room. He leaves her and the child behind, spending every day playing music and chess, tending flowers and plants, and making plans with the princess to watch spring blossoms, autumn moonlight, summer cicadas, and winter snow. On the very day Shiyi nearly dies in childbirth, he even marries Princess Zhaowan in a grand ceremony, becoming the prince consort whom all the capital's powerful families envy.
At last, Shen Shiyi learns the truth. The position of principal wife had always been reserved for the princess who had gone abroad to marry for political reasons. He had refused to marry for the sake of his former fiancée, to whom he had once been betrothed. He had not rejected marriage alliances with the daughters of powerful families for Shen Shiyi's sake. Everything he had done was for Princess Zhaowan. Even she was merely a substitute for his beloved princess.
From beginning to end, she was only that man's shadow, and had become a joke for people to gossip about over tea.
Now that he has a principal wife, even her child is no longer hers. The boy is registered under his legal mother's name and becomes someone else's child. A concubine has no right to raise her own child, and can never become a wife.
Just then, the Shen family is restored to favor. Shen Shiyi, who had lost all hope, finds it kindled anew. Unwilling to remain a concubine, she obtains a letter of release and leaves the Feng household.
On the day she moves, her husband, who has been away on business and has not appeared for a long time, holds their child and blocks her carriage, his eyes red. "You were a member of the Feng family in life, and you'll be a ghost of the Feng family in death. You're also Song-ge's birth mother. Please don't leave me and the child, all right?"
"I don't want to stay in the Feng household anymore."
She no longer wants to spend this laughable life with him, nor to accept a marriage in which there is a third person.
"From now on, let's part ways and each live well."
This time, Shen Shiyi leaves him without looking back.
Later, the Number Three Scholar stands confidently before her, his hands behind his back, and says, "Shiniang, after I had a frank talk with the princess, she understood my feelings for you. Yesterday, she asked to divorce me. This time, I will marry you as my wife. With my parents' approval and a matchmaker's arrangements, I'll bring you properly into the Feng family in a grand bridal sedan."
Shen Shiyi only looks at him calmly. "But I don't want to. I already love someone, and I only want to spend the rest of my life with him. In a few days, I'll be marrying him."
Reader Advisory: The heroine abandons the child and leaves, and she won't take back the trash. The Number Three Scholar chases his wife too late and doesn't win her back, so straight to the crematorium he goes. Both the male lead and the second male lead are decent men. The heroine won't be saddled with a rotten cucumber. Nitpickers and people who love to pick fights, stay away.
Theme: No matter the era, be brave enough to break free of constraints and take charge of your own life.
