Every woman has at least one mirror. For all sorts of reasons, we sit before them and do our hair and makeup. Lechang’s mirror is famous to all, and its moving tale has been passed down through the ages. But was it really such a happy story? Was nothing buried underground alongside the mirror? What of Xiao Yu’er’s mirror? When the empress, born under the Peach Blossom star, drew on her brows before it, what was in her heart? Was she really as weak and useless as the history books say? And Hongfu’s mirror, before her story had even begun: when she was combing her hair in a little inn and that magnificent hero suddenly walked in, did her heart not leap? Were her little regrets what eventually sent her wandering overseas for his sake?
