Painting Splendor

He is the Qing Dynasty’s greatest scholar. She, meanwhile, comes from a once-prosperous family now fallen on hard times. They thought they would remain strangers, until a passing Daoist priest’s words sealed their fate. On their wedding night, he lifts her veil. Delighted, she realizes it’s him. But he turns and walks away without a second thought. Step by step, proud as she is, she loves him humbly and in silence. At last, her devotion makes him look back, but by then it is too late.