『Rescuing the Fallen』
When Gu Jinghan was five years old, his hometown was struck by a disaster that left the fields barren. Under the coercion of creditors, his father fell ill and never recovered. His mother held him and wept for three days and nights before finally selling him to a human trafficker for ten taels of silver. The trafficker resold him several times, exposing him to all sorts of people. Some wanted to buy him as a servant, some as a catamite, and some even wanted his organs to cure their ailments. Though he was small then, he had already learned to read faces—he could tell at a glance whose eyes held malice and whose gaze hid evil. Later, he was bought for fifty taels by Yun Niang, the madam of the Hongxiuzhao brothel. Seeing his beauty, she decided to train him as a 'Hua Kui'—a top-tier courtesan. Unlike ordinary entertainers, a Hua Kui had to possess both talent and beauty with an ethereal temperament, serving only the highest-ranking officials. Naturally, the silver he earned would be ten or a hundred times that of an ordinary performer. Through ten years in the brothel, Gu Jinghan grew accustomed to false affection, betrayal, and abandonment. He watched as once-solemn vows turned into jokes. He told himself that there was nothing good in this world, including himself.