share time: 2025-10-17 12:30:25
In the deep winter of Beiping during the Republic of China, Ming Chuan, a wealthy young master returned from overseas study, hid in the wardrobe of a southern opera troupe to escape his family's arranged marriage. He startled Chang Dandan, a young Dan actress practicing *The Peony Pavilion*. Dandan stuffed an osmanthus cake from her sleeve into his hand and laughed: "Hide under my dressing table—this wardrobe leaks wind." Since then, Ming Chuan became an "unofficial helper" of the troupe: picking hairpins for her, waiting for the candied haws vendor with her, even secretly learning *Liu Mengmei* to sing to her on the opera house roof. But when he ran to the troupe with his father's "marital freedom" document, he found the door sealed—the boss said Dandan was abducted by her uncle to marry a 60-year-old landlord. Clutching the jade hairpin Dandan gave him, Ming Chuan searched for three days and finally saw her in a red jacket at the pier. Dandan wiped her tears and returned the hairpin: "Young master, I can't afford this Jinghua dream." As the ship whistle blew, he reached out but only grabbed the floating corner of her coat—the wind still carried the sweetness of osmanthus cake, but his little Dan actress was gone.
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