Before the age of 16, she is the pearl in the palm of her rich and powerful father, the beloved daughter. After the age of 16, in a single night, her family is broken up and nearly all the members dead. Relying on the emperor’s last trace of love and affection, finally Mu Ru Shuang (如霜) is able to stand on top of the imperial harem. Conspiracy, suspicion, jealousy, people trying to create a wedge between her and the emperor, she is able to eliminate each and everyone of her enemies, the imperial concubines in the imperial court, one by one. She calculates and uses up all kind of schemes and strategies but ultimately there is no winner !!!
[Ebook][Eng Translation][Incomplete Radiodrama] [Trăng lạnh như sương]
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[After a chance meeting, the handsome stranger asks for her name.
She waits in hopeless anticipation, but the marriage proposal never appeared.
What appeared is an edict from the Emperor killing 3 generations of her family.
She lives for revenge, only to realize when she sees her enemy, that it is the last person she would have expected meeting again.]
The story begins with an edict from the new Emperor destroying the Mu clan because the patriarch participated in a rebellion. Only the youngest daughter (Mu Ru Shuang) and youngest son are spared, but they are separated. Living with only revenge on her mind, Ru Shuang agrees to help 6th Prince overthrow 4th Prince (the Emperor). She relies on her looks to capture the Emperor’s heart because she looks very much like her elder sister, who had been his favorite concubine but died in childbirth upon learning of the edict against the Mu family. As Ru Shuang carries out her plan, twists and surprises slowly unravel to highlight the constant scheming between the Emperor’s women and the loyalty and rebellion between princes. In the end, the most heartbreaking secret is revealed - that two people meant to be together were separated by an innocent misunderstanding, a misunderstanding that sets in motion for the tragedy to come.
I was just complaining to peanuts about I’m in the mood for ancient stories but unable to find any good ones to read, then lo and behold! I stumbled on this little gem. I highly recommend this story, but the author is FWSC so you guys know what you are getting: angst, tears, heartbreak and then a sad ending. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a good story filled with unexpected twists and surprises, you’re not afraid of crying your eyes out and having your heart torn out of your chest because of the tragic ending, please give this a try!! It’s worth all the tears and pain, I promise hehe.
Given the intricacies of the plot, I’d love for this to be adapted into a drama (Yumama, can you read English? Can you hear lidge’s plea shouting out in the wilderness?) However, I’d change the ending so that Ru Shuang can let go of the past and she and 4th Prince can have a good ending. While the sad ending makes sense novel-wise, I don’t think viewing audience can stomach it, not if they invest hours upon hours following a drama. Come on, we watch dramas to be entertained, not have our hearts broken, lol.
Intro translation:
The Emperor’s edict cuts through the silence, not loudly, but the eunuch’s voice screeches, like a sharp knife slicing through everyone’s eardrums: “Males over 14 years of age will be executed, under 14 years of age will be exiled three thousand miles from the Capitol, females over 16 years of age will be given the white cloth to hang, under 16 years of age will be sold into slavery ……”
In the prison there is only dead silence, there are prisoners kneeling everywhere, the males are detained on the left side, the females on the right side, it is apparent that most will not survive. The hallway is dark and narrow, a cold breeze from somewhere wafts through, frigid to the bones. Among the females someone begins to sob, it is soft and desolate, like the melting of frost, bring a chill that permeates everyone’s hearts. High Official Mu glares with his red eyes, tightening his grips on the bars of his prison cell: “What’s with the crying? Are females of the Mu family afraid of death?”
Ru Shuang firmly grasps the bars of her prison cell, using all of her restraint to suppress her tears. Finally she cannot wait anymore, everything is coming to an end. Sixteen years of a sheltered life amidst wealth and privileges, sixteen years of being treated like a treasure, she had thought the next sixteen years would be the same, even better. But everything is gone now, everything is gone! Under the power of the new Emperor, everything of the Mu family has turned into ashes. She tightly bites her lower lip, so tight it begins to bleed. As blood oozes, she clenches her teeth: “Father, I’m not afraid to die!”
She does not fear death but fears being left alive, she is afraid of having to live by herself. She is her father’s youngest daughter, besides her, not many females will be spared. She is frightened of that possibility!
But she needs to live, to live so she can kill him, to live so she can have his blood in revenge for the blood of her family!
Even if he is the anointed Emperor, she will seek revenge for the Mu family, she will survive, she must!
I wrote the synopsis of the book but lidge did the hard work of translating so much details:P Another imperial harem story, yawn yawn. Sorry, this kind of story doesn't sit well with my modern sensibilities. But if it is made into a pretty drama with a pair of handsome actor and cute actress like Legend of Lu Zhen, I'll lap it up eagerly, lol. IF YMM is producing it then there will be no LSS & HG as they are from his arch enemy camp:(
The synopsis might sound like an imperial harem story, but the story is centered on the rebellion of 6th Prince against 4th Prince. It is from this rebellion that creates the intricacies in the plot: the elimination of the Mu clan, the reason why Ru Shuang's elder sister agreed to marry 4th Prince, Ru Shuang using her looks to capture the Emperor's heart and her wits to outsmart his other wives, 7th Prince's loyalty to 4th Prince, 11th Prince's betrayal against his own brother from the same mother, the question of who is the legitimate ruler.
The rebellion is the catalyst that causes a chain of events to happen which affects all the characters.
Lidge, please SPOIL me! :D
MV (with Viet subs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haxiwGtXCkg
Liu Shi Shi - Mu Ru Shuang
Yuan Hong - 4th Prince/Emperor
Hu Ge - 7th Prince
Unknown guy at 6:36 - 6th Prince
The MV does a good job of telling the story so I decided to do a summary from it. I marked specific sections in the MV so it’s easier to understand. The summary is very detailed and covers the entire story. Please don’t read if you want to find out for yourself what happens.
[spoiler]
0:10 - The new Emperor’s edict decimates the Mu clan. Ru Shuang is a slave while her youngest brother is exiled. In a chance encounter, RS is brought before 6th Prince, who recognizes her as someone from the Mu clan (the reason why is revealed later). 6th Prince tells her that he can help her seek revenge against 4th Prince/the Emperor.
0:35 - 6th Prince arranges for RS to be a servant in the palace.
0:55 - To gain 4th Prince’s attention, RS pretends to drown. She is rescued and brought before 4th Prince. (Note: In the story, when RS first sees 4th Prince, it is mentioned lightly and briefly that she recognizes him. The tragic irony is revealed in the end.)
1:05 - 4th Prince treats RS extremely well, the same or even better than his own wives even though technically status-wise, she is a nobody. RS hears rumors that the reason is because she looks like 4th Prince’s favorite wife who had died. After some thinking, she remembers that her elder sister had married 4th Prince some years before. The elder sister had died during childbirth after learning of her husband’s edict against her own family. RS uses her looks to capture 4th Prince’s heart. (It is this resemblance, which is why 6th Prince correctly guessed RS’s identity when he first saw her.)
1:22 - 7th Prince and RS meet. He is the best warrior in the kingdom and fiercely loyal to 4th Prince even though they have different mothers. In their youth, 4th Prince had protected 7th Prince against the other princes who bullied him.
1:56 - An assassination is made on RS’s life. 4th Prince realizes how important she is to him and gives her legitimate status as his wife against the strong objections of the court officials.
2:12 - 4th Prince says his ambition in life is to take back everything that has been taken away from him. (Note: The significance of this is revealed later. This is the reason why 6th Prince “rebels”.)
2:33 - RS has a miscarriage. 4th Prince doesn’t leave her side because he remembers his beloved wife/RS’s sister had died in childbirth.
3:17 - 4th Prince catches 11th Prince (his only brother from the same mother) in RS’s room. She doesn’t explain it’s a set-up because she knows it’s useless. He reduces her back to peasant status and banishes her.
4:07 - An epidemic breaks out in the Capitol. 7th Prince overexerts himself trying to contain it so he falls sick. The order is that sick people will be quarantined so 7th Prince voluntarily goes to a secluded temple. RS is at the temple because she is also sick. They meet. RS drugs and seduces him.
4:52 - 4th Prince goes to the temple to visit 7th Prince and meets RS. They have a conversation about a previous Emperor who was besotted with one of his wives.
5:23 - There’s a selection for more concubines for 4th Prince. The court officials hope this will divert 4th Prince’s attention from his obsession with RS/RS’s dead sister. One woman looks like RS/RS’s dead sister and quickly gains 4th Prince’s favor. Turns out this woman is also of the Mu clan but very distantly related so she was spared when 4th Prince issued the edict against the Mu clan.
5:37 - RS gets better so 4th Prince allows her to come back to the palace.
5:46 - There’s an invasion from a neighboring kingdom. The new leader of the invaders is good and wears a mask to hide his identity. 4th Prince allows 6th Prince to lead the army to fight the invaders. 6th Prince takes control of the army and goes out to meet the invaders but instead of fighting them, he strikes an agreement with the invaders and turns around to attack the Capitol.
5:53 - 11th Prince controls the armed guards in the Capitol. Turns out RS’s distant relative is also on 6th Prince’s side. The relative goes to 11th Prince and shows him the will of the previous Emperor, which states that should the Crown Prince die without sons (which he did), the next Emperor should be 6th Prince, his favorite child. This shows that 4th Prince is the usurper to the throne (He had said “he’ll take back everything that belongs to him”. Technically, 4th Prince is the usurper to the throne, not 6th Prince. This is why 6th Prince rebels because he feels the throne rightfully belongs to him). 11th Prince opens the gates of the Capitol to let 6th Prince in without putting up a fight. 6th Prince goes into the palace and fights one-on-one with 4th Prince.
5:57 - 4th Prince gradually loses advantage in the fight because before the fight, he had been slightly injured from fighting the rebels who came into the palace. 6th Prince stabs 4th Prince with his sword and wounds him. At this moment, RS runs out. 4th Prince reaches out to her and pulls her to him to comfort her, but she plunges a dagger into 4th Prince’s heart. He looks at the dagger and realizes that she’s the one he had fallen in love with, not her elder sister who he married. RS tells him that it’s her, but she waited and he never came for her until she couldn’t wait anymore. Before 4th Prince dies, he calls her name.
6:24 - Flashback to 2 years before. It was around the time of a big festival, and RS was left at home while her family had gone out. Bored, she disguises herself as a boy and goes out by herself. She meets a handsome stranger and as they talk, they realize that they are soulmates. When they part, the stranger asks “May I know your name, young miss?” RS realizes that he had recognized she is a young lady from a prominent family from the beginning. By asking for her name, he implies that he’ll come by to ask for her hand in marriage. She stammers her last name “Mu” and clarifies further who her father is. Finally, she explains her name but stammers badly out of shyness - “When I was born, the cold moon shone on the ground like frost….the moon……..” The stranger gives RS his dagger to commemorate their meeting/a signal of his serious intention (this is the dagger that RS uses to kill 4th Prince later, which is why he realizes the tragic irony in the mistaken identity). Over the next few days, a marriage proposal immediately comes for her elder sister from 4th Prince. It is said that 4th Prince had to kneel before the Emperor for half a day before his father consented. RS waits and waits in vain, but the stranger she fell in love with never appeared. It is only meeting 4th Prince again, finding out that her elder sister had been his favorite wife, that RS figures out the mistake. She had said “The cold moon shone on the ground like frost.” Her elder sister name was Lim Yue meaning “moon” while RS’s name means “frost.” Her elder sister had been in love with 6th Prince but agreed to marry 4th Prince to spy on him for 6th Prince. However, she ended up falling in love with her husband. In the meanwhile, her father planned to rebel in favor of 6th Prince. 4th Prince knew all of this so he quickly issued the edict against the Mu clan before they had a chance to rise up against him.
6:36 - 6th Prince gloats over 4th Prince’s dead body, but RS tells him that 4th Prince is the cunning one, not him. She explains 4th Prince’s strategy.
4th Prince had always known that 6th Prince wants to rebel, but he can’t kill him in a preventive measure like he did with the Mu clan because he doesn’t want to be accused of killing his own brother without evidence. Problem is 6th Prince pretended to be a careless playboy not interested in palace politics so he’s a looming threat that 4th Prince can’t do anything about. With the invasion, 4th Prince seizes this chance to force 6th Prince’s hand by purposely giving 6th Prince control of the army, knowing full well 6th Prince will side with the invaders and turn around to attack the Capitol. 7th Prince was sent out to “reinforce” 6th Prince, but actually, the plan is for 7th Prince to fight and defeat the invaders while allowing 6th Prince to invade the Capitol (this is proof that 6th Prince rebels against 4th Prince and the proof 4th Prince needed so he can legitimately kills his brother). Once all of 6th Prince’s army is in the Capitol, 7th Prince’s army will turn back after defeating the invaders to surround the Capitol, trapping 6th Prince inside and gradually move in to kill of 6th Prince’s army. However, 4th Prince miscalculated a bit due to 2 factors: 1) the good fight the leader of the invaders put up which delays 7th Prince; the leader is RS’s youngest brother; the Mu clan had been great warriors and 2) 11th Prince seeing the will of their father saying the designated Emperor is 6th Prince, not 4th Prince so 11th Prince allows 6th Prince into the Capitol without putting up a resistance, which allows 6th Prince to occupy the Capitol quickly.
6th Prince doesn’t believe RS, but there’s noises outside that continue to grow louder. It’s 7th Prince’s army fighting with 6th Prince’s army and defeating them. 6th Prince realizes he has lost and commits suicide.
6:53 - 7th Prince successfully enters the palace. He finds RS kneeling by 4th Prince’s dead body.
In the epilogue, which is not in the MV………..
RS gives birth to a boy who is the new Emperor. 7th Prince serves as regent while RS’s status is elevated to that of the mother of the Emperor. This baby is RS and 7th Prince from the night at the temple.
RS’s distant relative also gives birth to a boy. The baby is 4th Prince’s son so RS wants 7th Prince to kill it so there’s no threat to the throne in the future. 7th Prince doesn’t obey her but adopts the baby (his nephew) instead.
7th Prince works with RS in the interest of the country. It is not known if he had ever felt anything for her, but now realizing her true character, he doesn’t want anything to do with her romantically anymore.
[/spoiler]
Hi
Is the 4th prince in love with her distant relative? If not why would they have a child together when he is still tgt with RS.
RS killed 4th price bcause he nv came to propose to her or because he killed her clan?
Thanks. sounds interesting. but as usual, a sad ending. :(
and why wasn't she killed after murdering 4th prince? is it because 4th price ordered not do before he died?
Thank you very much for such an indepth summary. Pls write one for every books in the bar, lol. Very good idea to base your summary on the fan-made MV. To prove that I did read your summary thoroughly, I'll answer cloudy's queries:P
4th prince loves the relative bcos she looks like RS. At that time RS was banished to the temple. Come on, he is the Emperor so can love as many as he can eat, lol. Hey lidge, how come the baby son becomes 7th Prince's niece?
RS knows 4th prince did go but proposed to the wrong woman. She probably killed him to seek revenge for her family deaths.
She wasn't killed after killing 4th prince bcos 7th Prince who is her lover took power & installed their son as the new Emperor.
This story sounds rather familiar. I think FWSC copied parts of the idea from the 2nd or 3rd Qing Emperor's love story then mix & match with some other novel plots. Eeeeee, I don't like RS, she is too vindictive & cold. The Emperor did what he has to do as her family are rebels. If one can't forgive, just leave but killing him is so cruel. Moreover she also wanna kill his son. It is understandable why 7th Prince doesn't want to have anything to do with her anymore.
Here is another MV on the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdDtZ74PCnw
[spoiler]
He's in love with the young girl he gave the dagger too. But in that meeting, RS was disguised as a boy so 4th Prince didn't get a chance to see what she could look like as a girl. Since the girls in the Mu clan can resemble each other strongly (strong genes? lol), it led to 4th Prince feeling attracted to them all because they look like the girl he fell in love with.
After 4th Prince noticed the distant relative's resemblance, he immediately gave her legal status and made her one of his wives. So it's possible for them to have a child.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]
Killed him because he killed her entire family.
When a guy promises marriage but doesn't come through, I don't think that's enough reason to kill him, lol. And he did come to propose as promised, just to the wrong person, unfortunately.
[/spoiler]
:( :( :(
[spoiler]
In the end, the only one left standing is 7th Prince because he controls the army. We can reason that he wouldn't kill RS because she's pregnant with his baby.
[/spoiler]
Thanks, Lidge!! You ROCK!!!!! :D
I usually shy away from books with torturously sad endings, but I did like FWSC's other ancient novel (Eastern Palace) a lot, which makes me much more partial to possibly picking up this story. Unlike Peanuts, I actually tend to prefer ancient stories, ha. :P I have EXTREMELY low tolerance for stupid females in modern stories, which is sadly an all too common phenomenon. Actually, that's the sole reason I haven't been following your and Peanuts' translation of "Come Eat, Shan Shan", sorry. :P
I assume RS already knew, when she killed him, that 4th prince was "the one" from so long ago, but she still chose to kill him, despite (I presume) her love for him. It's a little sad and extreme, but I can accept it in an ancient story, because back then, ideals like family honor were taken VERY seriously. In other words, I'm more willing to accept "excesses" in ancient stories since I can understand that their POVs and sensibilities were VERY different from modern ones.