share time: 2025-10-14 06:01:20
Lin Yuan, a scholar who failed the imperial exam three times, was drowning his sorrows in a tavern after his third defeat when Su Wantang, a songstress, spotted the river management strategy he’d hidden in his sleeve—a draft he’d labored over for three years. Though from a lowly background, Su had long admired Lin’s talent. She secretly sold her precious jade hairpin to fund his studies and, when his fellow villagers mocked him as a “poor loser,” she threw down silver in public and retorted: “His pen can revive rivers across the land; your mouths only spew nonsense!” But just as Lin topped the exam and prepared to present his strategy to the emperor, he learned Su had been detained by the prime minister’s son—she’d risked being beaten to protect his draft from tampering. Torn between his long-awaited path to success and the woman who’d sacrificed for him, Lin’s hands trembled as he held the imperial edict: this time, it was his turn to protect her.
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