Song Wanjun (GL)
Stepmother x Returned Eldest Miss Winter, the 17th year of the Republic. The eldest miss of the Shen family, who had lived in France for ten years, was summoned back from Paris by a telegram because her father was critically ill. Pushing open the door to the warm chamber, she saw her father's concubine for the first time—a woman only a few years older than herself, Song Wanjun. One was an heir who had never stepped foot into this deep mansion, her clean eyes still reflecting the shimmering light of the Seine. The other was an insider who had been sold here at sixteen and had endured nine years in this house, until only her eyes remained her own. The night they first met, the medicine bowl in the warm chamber was tepid, cigarette smoke curled in the air, and a gramophone played that line from The Peony Pavilion: "Without entering the garden, how could one know how beautiful the spring colors are?" She asked, "Then look at me—can you paint me?" Later, she hid, and she pursued; she was cold, and she would not leave. One had been bound by the rules of society for twenty-five years, and for the first time, someone looked at her as a "human." One was soaked to the bone with the freedom of Paris, and for the first time, she wanted to stay for someone. But this was Shanghai in the 17th year of the Republic. This was the Shen Mansion. This was her father's woman. The medicine bowl passed between the two of them, and neither let go. Outside, the snow fell all night; inside, that secret heart that could not see the light was as scorching as the last piece of charcoal in the brazier. They both knew that taking one step forward meant a precipice. But they knew even better— This would be the only time in this life. "Without entering the garden, how could one know how beautiful the spring colors are?" —But once you enter the garden, you realize that the spring colors are meant to take your life.
“Without entering the garden, how could one know how beautiful the spring colors are?”