Lanterns Shining Through the Night

In the seventeenth year of Yongle, Zhao Mingyan, the heiress of Mingyue Studio's lantern business, and Tan Linshuang, the young master of the Bamboo Grove Trading House, were happily married.

But the moment Tan Linshuang took Zhao Mingyan by the hand to lead her into the bridal sedan, a game of wits began between them.

Zhao Mingyan: They say this man won't live past twenty, but at least he's as handsome as a jade-crowned gentleman. I'll get him into bed, bear him a child to carry on the Zhao family line, and we'll be a devoted couple. If he happens to die young, I'll have the lantern shop in one hand and the Bamboo Grove Trading House in the other, with money and a child, and I'll be a carefree widow.

Tan Linshuang: People call this woman the Zhao family's She-Devil and a shrew from Shu, but Grandmother adores her. I'll make her my ornamental wife and use her to get control of the trading house. Then I'll take concubines and have children, forcing her to ask for a divorce. I'll marry a virtuous woman to become the new mistress of the household, and we'll be a devoted couple.

On their wedding night, she turned up the heat, while he pretended to be sick, fainted, and nearly pretended to die.

A year later, she had made Mingyue Studio's lanterns famous throughout the capital once more, and the Bamboo Grove Trading House was thriving too. She turned to look, and he still wasn't dead.

Feeling her full-term belly, she set about picking out a pretty concubine for him.

But he asked her reproachfully, "Wife, what do you mean by this? Now that you have a child, you don't want your husband anymore?"

She smiled sweetly. "Husband, aren't I just doing what you wanted? I play the ornament, you take a concubine, and the two of you become a devoted couple?"

Theme: A woman from Shu is determined to stand on her own, even in ancient times. She can carry on the family business outside and keep her husband in line at home. She tends the lanterns and loosens the ties, the lanterns shine through the night, and the red waves never cease.