Any spoilers will be appreciated! Description from NU: “Shen Zhen, the Emperor has recalled his edict. I will cancel my wedding with Xu Qiniang this instant. Come back to me.” “Does Your Lordship know, they say that there are no bluer skies than those of Mobei and that the clouds float so low that if one were to lift one’s hand, they would graze one’s fingertips. I wish to see it.” “Look at me and tell me clearly … Do you love him?” “I do.” “What was all this the Third Miss and I shared these years? Nothing but fog?” “When is the wedding to be held?” “In two years from now.” “And then? How should I address you then? My Lady, the Marquise Changping? “Your Lordship has been very kind to Shen Zhen. She promises never to forget his life-saving grace. If ever there be another life …” “You know I do not believe in rebirth. The road to Mobei is long and tiring. Take care of yourself.” ¤¤¤ The Marquis Yunyang was deposed by the Emperor and his family ended up in dire straits overnight. As such, the Third Miss of the Shen Household, her family’s most precious jewel, found herself abandoned by all with a sick brother on her hands. Having no other choice, she set up a cosmetics shop in Chang’an. But to the eyes of all, especially her relatives’, she had become nothing but an alluring flower any man could pick at will. Passing by her Baixiang Pavilion, the heir to the Grand Duchy of Zhen, Lu Yan, witnessed her being harassed by the idle sons of Chang’an’s leading class. Her appearance reminded him of dreams that had been plaguing him lately, revealing to him a past with her and the sultry love affair they had shared in a previous life. With shaking fingers, he also remembered the bitter taste of heartbreak when she left him to marry another man. Thus, in this life, he decided to save her once more, lure her into an affair, install her as his mistress and never let her escape his sphere of influence again. However, to keep Shen Zhen by his side, finding her a place to stay and caring for her brother was not enough. Little did Lu Yan know he would be pulled into the darkest corners of Chang’an and take part in games of power that at times implicated the Main Gentleman of the Empire, the Emperor himself. Selling what he held dearest in the process: his integrity as an official. All for the sake of Chang’an’s First Beauty.
I read the translations till chapter 22 and it's a little different from other novels. The MC basically coerced her into being his mistress, he is cold but he also knows she affects him unlike anyone else (no other woman entices MC even a little bit). FL right now only cares about her little brother and given the chance, she will run away from MC at this point in the novel. The reviews said it's not much fluff. But the portrayal is definitely realistic, and I was drawn to it. I did read the last chapter by MTL and they have a happy ending.
Mistress as in Concubine? Or outside concubine? Her status doesn't seem high enough to marry as a proper wife.
I am no good at spoiling. No structure whatsoever. But let me give this a try. First of all, just underlining that what makes this novel a bit different is the fact we are mostly looking at things from the ML's perspective. As the reviewers on the NU page mentioned, at the top of our heads, there is no other romance author who has been so detailed in the description of a ML. Generally, in BG romance novels, male character are tools meant to enhance the experience of the FL. Lu Yan is a tool, no doubt, just not the instrumental type ... More about the main characters: ¤ Lu Yan (ML) Personality-wise, Lu Yan is not the caricature of manhood most CN romance novel MLs are. There is nothing exaggerated about his behavior. He is nuanced and acts differently depending on whom he interacts with. With his mother he would be a loving, albeit rebellious, son who refuses to marry and tries to swindle her in giving him a few years. With his grandmother, he is the careful grandson, loving and kind. With his female cousins, he is the mean, albeit affectionate, elder brother who doesn't give them any face. As a friend, he is loyal to a fault. And that is it. To the rest of the world, he is callous, cold, unfeeling and mathematical to the point of rigidity. But in a very restrained way. If a beggar where to ever grasp his cape to beg for money, he would never kick him aside. He would tear his cape from the beggar's grasp and walk on, however. He is a high-ranked official at the Supreme Court. As such, he has, at all times, a grasp at what is happening in the capital. He also happens to be the Emperor's nephew through his mother, who is a Princess Royal. Since his mother is very loved by the Emperor, there is great, albeit restrained, affection between uncle and nephew. Being so close, the Emperor does not shy from sending his nephew here and there, wherever he needs someone of trust. You would assume that working at the Supreme Court would make him a very upright man. He does indeed apply the law to the letter in most cases, without any place for human feelings or kindness. Unless, there is something about a case that touches him personally. When that happens, he will not shy away from using his abilities and position to tamper with evidence, to commit questionable actions, etc. Lu Yan plays according to the rules of his world. He has position, he has backing, thus he is never truly wrong. As long as he does not commit something outrageous that goes against the Emperor's wishes, he will get away with murder. Just that Lu Yan is exactly the type to push the limits and see whether he could do things that would displease the Emperor and still get away with them. ¤ Shen Zhen (FL) She is one of the celebrated Shen girls. Her two sisters were the greatest beauties of Chang'an in their time. She is the most beautiful of the three. However, though, she is so beautiful, she is also a frightened introvert who prefers to keep human interactions with strangers to a strict minimum. At first glance, she is an innocent, white rabbit, lost in this great, cruel world. She either provokes people to want to torture her or protect her. But, having been the youngest child for a long period before her youngest brother was born, she has learned how to please people around her to have them do as she pleases. Her sisters, grandmother, mother and father would cover her in gifts and always hand money to her she was said to have been richer than her father, the Marquis Yunyang, himself. And she will use her beauty, her supposed softness and her slyness to get what she needs from the ML, though she loses much in turn. Shen Zhen is educated. And although she is a very silent character, she can also be very acerbic in her judgments. It is very interesting to see how divergent and her and Lu Yan's views are where their relationship is concerned. Often, she passes silent comments about him that do not match her frightened, shy persona. She has such strong attachment to her family that she is willing to lap up mud for them. She has no misplaced pride and for her younger brother, who is a very sickly little boy, she would have willingly sold herself to her enemies had she not understood it all to be a ploy against her father. She is willing to become a pariah just to protect her brother, strongly believing that whatever humiliating actions she has to commit, her father would never reject her. ¤ Zhou Shu'an (SML) A high-ranking official at the Department of Punishments, he comes from a commoner family and has spent most of his adult life taking care of a dying father. This led to him having first taken the Imperial Examination at a more advanced age (in his early twenties, I believe). He did so well he was made a high-ranking official at once. I believe he is ranked higher in hierarchy than Lu Yan, actually. He is man who tries to be as just and as law-abiding as he can. He has a very ungrateful job, looking at the families and children coming in and out of prison, trying to bribe him for just a bit of a better treatment of their loved ones. And he never gave in. Until the Marquis Yunyang, father to one Shen Ran, Shen Zhen's eldest sister, is brought to his prison. He saw Shen Ran for the first time when he came to pass the Imperial Examination, four-five years before the story starts. And he fell in love with her countenance and the way she carried herself, rather than her beauty. However, being so abiding to justice, he never approached her father for her hand, let alone himself. He has obsessive tendencies towards Shen Ran. As soon as she ends up in dire straits, depending on Zhou Shu'an's good will towards her father, he takes the opportunity to throw all of his good principles out the window and tries manipulating her, ending up manipulated by her into an emotional and carnal affair, though she is a married woman. ¤ Shen Ran (SFL) The eldest Shen girl, she was the main Chang'an great beauty before she got married (she is still a great beauty, it is just rude to go around waxing poetry about someone else's wife). She is a very loyal girl who actively tried to take the place of a mother in the lives of her siblings once their own mother died. Her loyalty also makes her ruthless. Among the Shen girls, she is emotionally the strongest and most stable. She is a fast thinker and though, like all the Shen girls, she is amenable, she can be the most cruel between the three. Allies or enemies, she will crush them all to get what she wants. If ever anyone, including her husband, her mother-in-law (especially those two), were to plot against her family and she found out about it, she would not only counter their actions, she would drag them down to hell with her. Ruin their reputations, make them lose their titles, make them criminals. And if for that she needed to plant evidence, to become a criminal herself, she would do it. She does not shy away from any means to get what she wants. This includes toying, manipulating and breaking a man deeply in love with her. If Shen Zhen is a bobcat, Shen Yao (the middle sister) a boar, then Shen Ran is a wolf. She might be the only important female characters in CN novels who actively seeks means to obtain divorce on her terms. She does not fear it, she lives for the idea of it. I shall be writing about the three plotlines in the next post.
This story more or less spans over three repeated lifetimes. Most of it takes part in the second lifetimes, with flashbacks of the first, but I will split the happenings in three different lifetimes, starting with the first. First lifetime Shen Zhen's father was the Minister of Works. A water reservoir under his supervision ended up crumbling and killing a great amount of people. Under pressure, the Emperor deposed him and imprisoned him for a period of 1 or 2 years, I do not remember. This led to his youngest daughter, Shen Zhen, and her sick brother, Shen Hong, to end up in dire straits overnight. Out of nowhere, an usurer appears at Shen Zhen's door step, producing a falsified proof that her father had contracted a very high debt and demanding that she sell herself to pay up. Shen Ran, her eldest sister, is being kept under key by her mother-in-law and husband. Her dowry has also been taken from her from fear she would use it (as she indeed intended) to pay the debt off. Sui Yu, Lu Yan's closest friend, the Shen girls' childhood friend as well as Shen Yao's (the middle sister) childhood sweetheart, also planned on paying off the debt, however his mother forbid him from doing it, in fear of offending the Emperor (elders had legal right of veto over anything their children might have wished to do). Shen Zhen's aunt, who had married a count, came to convince her to become the concubine of a certain Prince Tang who was her father's main adversary at court. All in all, that Prince Tang, Shen Zhen's count uncle and a member of the Empress's family were aware they had to find a way to coerce Shen Zhen's father, assuming he be released from prison and eventually cleared of all charges (as he obviously was innocent). So they plotted to forge that debt document so they would force Shen Zhen into their claws (also planning to gang-r*pe her - it never happened, but just the mention of it makes my stomach heave). However, Shen Ran (whose husband, Li Di, was also implicated in the affair, having taking his father-in-law's position as Minister of Works) and Sui Yu organized to find a way to send Shen Zhen and Shen Hong out of Chang'an. With the help of a soldier (whom Marquis Yunyang, Shen Zhen's father, had helped at some point in life) guarding the city gates, she and Shen Hong were supposed to sneak out of the Chang'an. Sui Yu forged some household registration papers, Shen Ran gathered some of the jewelry her MIL and hubs hadn't taken from her and the only choice they had was to send Shen Zhen out in the wide world, praying for the best. However, Lu Yan and the night watch caught the guard, Shen Zhen and Shen Hong as they were about to leave the city illegally. They were dragged back to prison where Lu Yan put them all in different cells (just to underline Lu Yan's character - Shen Hong is about 4-5 years old). The guard was tortured but did not reveal who it was who help them organize the escape. Lu Yan threatened Shen Zhen with torture if she did not reveal who it was who helped her forge the household registry (oh, and she did beg him to release Shen Hong from prison as he is very sickly - you can imagine Lu Yan's response to that). She obviously did not speak, scared her eldest sister and Sui Yu would be implicated. So Lu Yan had her taken away and hit twenty times with a plank. Sui Yu (who also happens to be Lu Yan's dearest friend) rushed to the prison in a panic, admitting to Lu Yan that he had planned everything and forged the documents. Lu Yan is in a dilemma. Sui Yu is virtually his only friend (because, outside of his family members, Lu Yan treats people like sh*t). Lu Yan couldn't understand what had happened to Sui Yu to forge documents, commit crimes and that for some fifteen-year old chick whose family is pretty hated by the Emperor. But Sui Yu admitted he had done it for Shen Yao (Shen Zhen's middle sister who had been married off to the Uighur kingdom), whom he had loved since childhood. As well, he told Lu Yan that they all, Lu Yan included, knew Shen Zhen to be an innocent victim and that he, Sui Yu, would not be able to look at himself in a mirror if he let her be defiled. Finally, he begged Lu Yan to just imagine her as one of his younger female cousins and asked him whether he would not do everything to save them. So, panicked that Sui Yu would do something even more outrageous, Lu Yan promised he would protect Shen Zhen. He broke her out of prison, hid her in one of his properties and that is it. Just that, as time passed and the atmosphere at his home became tiring (he is unmarried and not planning to remedy to the situation) and as the residence Shen Zhen lived in was close to the Supreme Court, he started coming there to crash. Eventually, he got more acquainted with Shen Zhen's personality. Time passed, they fell in love (did I mention Shen Zhen, so young, ended up with spinal osteoarthritis from the plank beating) and had an affair. She was not his wife, she was not his concubine, but his mistress (in Chinese "outside room", a de facto mistress with no legal rights and whose children, if ever there be children, would not be recognized as their father's). In the meanwhile, Shen Ran and Zhou Shu'an interacted with one another in prison when she went to visit her father. He had been in love with her forever, and he was a very passionate man. They were both aware her husband, Li Di, had plotted against the Shen family from way before her marriage to him (she had been pushed into the water when a young girl, Li Di had saved her and demanded her hand as he had touched her body - Marquis Yunyang had wanted to beat the cr*p out of him, but they thought that as Li Di was of common birth, he would treat her with respect). The relationship between Shen Ran and Li Di deteriorated very quickly and Zhou Shu'an could not bear seeing her broken and thin. So he attempts murder on Li Di, since she herself was thinking of poisoning him and Zhou Shu'an found out. He is found guilty and executed for the crime. Somewhere along there, Lu Yan is given a marriage by his uncle, the Emperor. He is supposed to marry a member of the Empress's family. However, the Empress and her adjutants (Prince Tang, other Xiao family members, Li Di, etc.) plan on having the Emperor be assassinated so the Empress's son could become the next Emperor (the Shen family was in the faction of another Imperial Prince). As assassination is attempted, Lu Yan throws himself in front of his uncle and protects him from the arrow that had been shot his way. But the arrow was poisoned. All in all, the quantity of poison that enters Lu Yan's body is minimal but, as it is not immediately treated, it will deteriorate his body functions over the years. His wedding with the Xiao girl is cancelled and he wants to marry Shen Zhen, just that his family found out about her and came to tell her they would never tolerate her marrying the heir to the Grand Duchy, not like a concubine, not like anything. After all, her father died in prison as a criminal (he indeed could not survive the bad treatment he suffered after Zhou Shu'an was executed), her eldest sister was implicated in a murder case and she was Lu Yan's mistress for a two years or so. So Shen Zhen makes Lu Yan believe she does not love him and that she wants to leave with Marquis Changping, a general in Mobei and her childhood friend (who is the kindest man and has loved her since they were children, always doing everything she wanted). However, Marquis Changping won't be able to marry before two years as he is mourning for his parents. She tells Lu Yan however that if ever there be a second life ... He interrupts her there, telling her he does not believe in rebirth. Two years in, Lu Yan is on his deathbed, dying of what I believe to be osteomyelitis. He never married, though his parents tried to force him. He just mourned his love for Shen Zhen, and on his deathbed he holds onto a memento of her. Shen Zhen left him a letter he never wanted to read. His loyal servant, Yang Zong, asks him what is to be done with the letter. Lu Yan tells him to destroy it, but NOT to burn it as he fears the feelings he had for Shen Zhen and the words in the letter would haunt him in his death. But as Lu Yan dies, Yang Zong burns the letter on purpose, hoping to alleviate his master's pain. Shen Zhen, hearing about Lu Yan's death, abandons the Marquis Changping (who is heartbroken! He accepted her affair with Lu Yan, he disregarded the fact she did not love him and just wanted her to have an easy, carefree life) and rushes back to the capital. I do not remember what happened to her. She might have died on her way. I have no idea what happened to Shen Hong either.
It seems yet another story where a weak woman chooses the man who treated her badly over a kind and decent one.
It's a little different than that. FL looks weak and acts weak, but she isn't. I personally don't like those kind of stories too, but this one is extremely realistic.
Just want to say that you're amazing. Such good character analysis, and coherent summary. I would like to know more. T.T
I usually despise those type of stories too but I genuinely think it's an insult to compare this story with those. The characters here have so many layers....eagerly waiting to uncover them all.
Can anyone translate the letter Shen Zhen wrote to Lu Yan? my MTL brain can't process the raw version properly. It's on chapter 135(Fanwai 9).
Any more spoilers please? What did the letter say? Did he marry anyone is the current life? Love rivals? Do ML & FL marry? Does his family interfere with their relationship like in the past life, what happens to them? How does the story end? Thx
The story has 3 lifetimes. In the first lifetime, every daughter of Shen Jia has a bad ending. The second lifetime starts when Lu Yan (ML) remembers his past life and becomes the main timeline of the story. The third was being shown in the extra part, as the closing of the story. Spoiler: Ending of The Second Life FL will be married to ML. His family is quite satisfied with her. They have one son and one daughter. FL has a bad pregnancy, as she always vomits until she becomes thin. When she gives birth, ML faint, and ML's soul from his previous life takes over his body. He was confused but also very happy to have FL and their son. He only stays for one day though, and thinks that it was just a dream. The next day, ML woke up again with his second life soul. PS: ML is one person but because he has 3 lifetimes, let regard 'he' from another life as another soul to make it easier. FL's eldest sister married again to Zhou Shu'an. She was got an insult behind her back as she was someone who has married before and she didn't pregnant even after so long. Only 2 years after her husband make her ignore these comments that she becomes pregnant. At the ending of their part, Shen Ran and Zhou Shu'an already have a daughter and pregnant with their second child. She tells Zhou Shu'an that if only she meet him first before Di Li, her life will be very happy (though she already very happy with him at that time). Nah, I think Shen Ran's wish is one of the reasons for the third lifetime. Spoiler: Third Lifetime Zhou Shu'an got his memory from his first life and prevent Di Li from saving Shen Ran so she didn't have to marry Di Li. Even though the circumstances seem suspicious, Zhou Shu'an can erase Shen Jia's doubt on him and give them a good impression. He gives hints to Father Shen so he didn't fall into Empress's trap. He also prevents Shen Father to allowed his daughters to come to the palace banquet so his second daughter will not force to marry a prince from another country. So in this lifetime, Shen Ran can marry Zhou Shu'an as her first and only husband, and Sui Yu can marry his beloved Shen Yao. Shen Jia not destroyed, other nobles even envy Father Shen to have 2 beautiful daughters who have a good marriage. Our FL and ML appear a bit later in the third lifetime. A noble son whose marriage proposal got rejected by Shen Jia retaliated. He tries to sneak into Shen Zhen's chamber and want to rape her. Fortunately, Shen Zhen closes her window fast and scream so the noble son got catch and beaten. This conflict was reported to ML's department. When he saw FL's name, he fainted and remember their past life. FL got nightmares from the noble son incident so Shen Ran takes her to the temple. ML also go to the temple as he knows she will be there. They pray in the same room but suddenly FL fainted. ML got a report from his subordinate that FL was in a coma (MTL said this, I didn't know how long she unconscious). ML remembers the moment when he remembers their past life, he also fainted, so he comes to FL's room (no better than the noble son). FL wake up when ML almost goes back. Even though it not being explicitly said, but FL gains her past memory and ML hugs her then tells her he will always protect her. (HE)