When mountains and seas separate me from my beloved, I shall flatten those mountains and fill in those seas. Eating, drinking and whoring — since his banishment to the Nanjing Ministry of War, these had become Xie Yilu’s entire life. In this lawless age, scholars and Eunuch Faction sycophants clawed at each other’s throats and each grand chamberlain wielded more power and influence than the last. As someone who could not master the arts of flattery and bootlicking, Xie Yilu’s only wish was to be a conscientious minor official. Yet who knew that in such chaotic times, one could still encounter written confessions that sung out in a voice as fresh as the light of dawn? Plum blossoms are but fleeting visitors; only pines will be one’s constant companions. Xie Yilu had fantasised about such a person, but he could never have imagined that this confidant like an immortal ascended from the dust of worldly affairs was actually him?! An old stone lantern stand, a page of powerful calligraphy and a set of heartstrings plucked out of the blue. Looking up at that frosty visage, Xie Yilu could not help but wonder — what is he hiding behind that haughty mask?