That's right, we now have official art for our couple Mei Yanran and Ling Fengxiao! (^-^) Naturally, she's sitting on a plum blossom tree.

The cover video I chose for this chapter is Yisa Yu's "A Little Bit of Heaven"《小小天涯》, my personal choice for Mei Yanran's image song. The translated lyrics courtesy of Mermaid's FunFun Share Time (now removed from the original site) is below:

 

"A Little Bit of Heaven" - Yisa Yu 

I am alone in this world
My heart sometimes feels cheerful, but sometimes feels desperate

I am waiting for a romantic love story
I am also looking forward to tomorrow
At the same time, I want to clench what I am having now
How should I write my love story?

In my world, I have affectionate innocence,
at the same time, I want a sudden impulse of falling [in love]
The more dangerous the world becomes,
the hotter my love becomes

It is worth for me to try my very best for this story
The world is in a mess,
I have reversed the time difference for you
The shifting glow in my eye is the graffiti given to you
Who knows that there are little white pear blossoms blooming in my heart?

Where will they fall to?
In my world, I have affectionate innocence,
at the same time, I want a sudden impulse of fall
The more dangerous the world becomes,
the hotter my love becomes

It is worth for me to try my very best for this story
The world is in a mess,
I have reversed the time difference for you
The shifting glow in my eye is the graffiti given to you
Who knows that there are little white pear blossoms blooming in my heart?

Where will they fall to?
The world is in a mess,
I have reversed the time difference for you
The shifting glow in my eye is the graffiti given to you

Who knows that there are little white pear blossoms blooming in my heart?
Where will they fall to? 

That's it for the safe stuff, I'll be delving into the plot below so stop here if you don't want to be spoiled. :9

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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Keep in mind that these notes are rough and may be incomplete!

The title of this story comes from a Hamlet quote: "To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there's the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come..."

It's actually a big spoiler in plain sight, but we'll get back to that later. 

PART 1: HAPPY HIJINKS

Romance and romcom make up the first third of this story. The fact that Mei Yanran hails from the same hometown where Ling Fengxiao lived as a child was just the Goddess of Fates pulling her strings. 

The two grow as a couple through challenges and mysteries plaguing the capital--really the works of groups who want to overthrow the emperor. There is a small plot point where MYR showcases her dance skills against in a ritual meant to hurry spring along after an especially long and bitter winter. She manages to summon sunshine after weeks of cold but almost freezes in the process because she was only wearing a thin dress; naturally, the dashing LFX is there with his thick cloak to help her.

Meanwhile, the ill prince from another country disguised as a Jianghu vagabond is fully cured by Li Siyan's bought medicine and comes to the city to seek her out. They eventually end up as a couple, which is a much happier ending for either of them as neither are pining for love.

LFX is conflicted over his duty vs. his love, but ultimately decides by the end of the arc to pursue MYR wholeheartedly. It ends with a confession in his plum blossoms orchards and her returning his gift with a dance. He's too flustered to remember to bring a gift to cement the relationship, but she says he can simply pluck her one of the plum blossoms from the trees. He picks the tallest one, and promises himself to her even as she gives all of her to him in words. 

There are other side character adventures here too, like Chen Xiao the head guard temporarily becoming the disciple of the famous martial arts hermit that LFX invited into the capital to investigate the "mysterious spy organization" (aka MYR's guards sent to spy on him) camped in front of his property, but they're not too important lol.

PART 2: REALITY CHECK

Unfortunately, you can't have your cake and eat it too. With LFX distracted by MYR, a few schemes slip past unnoticed until it is too late--and the sickly second prince Chu Yeci dies from poison.

MYR is shaken and finally realizes that despite her treating everyone as a story, the people here are very real and actions have consequences. In the original story, the second prince survived to the end of the book. If he can die here, then what about everyone else? After the incident, Crown Prince Chu Yeguang temporarily stops chasing MYR and resolves to track down the killer with 3rd Prince Chu Yexuan (the original male lead). MYR privately resolves to help too, and finally makes use of her foreknowledge to tell LFY all she knows.

But she's not a genius, nor is she subtle, and her efforts to help only raises LFX's suspicons: how does she know all these things? Unfortunately, his reserved nature means he keeps these thoughts in his head while following along with her "leads." Their relationship becomes tense, and at one point he outright accuses MYR of being a spy when she's roped in by Li Siyan to help her foreign prince lover escape the country in the midst of all the uproar and strife.

MYR is heartbroken by the accusation and reveals to him she's not from this world at all, but LFX only takes it to mean that she was never from their country and was fooling him the entire time.

By the end of this arc, their relationship is in tatters, the old emperor is dead, and 3rd Prince Chu Yeci has taken the throne instead of his incompetent older brother, who disappears from the public eye.

PART 3: MISUNDERSTANDINGS & REGRETS

While MYR is feeling down, the now deposed Crown Prince Chu Yeguang attempts to comfort her. She's not interested but feels sorry for him for losing everything (despite not doing anything evil this time around), so she shelters him at an inn outside the capital. Unfortunately, it is around this time that LFX uncovers the agents responsible for Chu Yeci's death--it turns out that they have connections with the crown prince. 

Originally, the crown prince in the story was supposed to lead these people to crush all opposition in his goal for the throne, but MYR's existence had started mellowing him out. His followers felt differently, however, and took matters into their own hands even after he willingly gave up the throne.

With this evidence in his hands and news of MYR seen together with CYG on multiple occasions, LFX is both convinced and devastated that MYR was a traitor all along. She knows too much and shared too little until too late--even if she regrets it now, the damage is done. It doesn't help that his enemies seized upon his emotional state and simply twist things around to make MYR more suspicious so as to throw LFX off their trail. When forced to choose between his country and future sovereign versus the affections of a single woman, LFX has no choice but to "give her up."

LFX does hold one last trick, however: if he can ensure that the "traitor" MYR dies, then no one will mind if he picks up a girl just like MYR to take her place. It's also a way to test her alliances one last time and protect her in his own way. 

He arranges for them to meet in the Winterflower Woods almost one year after their first visit there, and asks her to confess. She insists she's done nothing wrong; he doesn't buy it and says it'll be dangerous if she keeps denying her "crimes." She gets mad and grabs him; LFX's guards are convinced she's going to kill him and spring LFX's safeguard without his permission, sending a cloud of arrows into the clearing. MYR is hit inches from her heart and collapses in disbelief in a panicked LFX's arms. Her last thought before losing consciousness is that it's a shame they couldn't last long enough to see the plum blossoms bloom again, because she'd rather see their flowers than these dead, bare branches.

LFX takes her back to his manor and has the doctors look after her. Technically, the wound isn't fatal, but MYR's shock and betrayal from LFX's denial is enough for her to mentally reject this world and its (cruel) reality. She closes her eyes and "dies," summarily fading from existence in the novel world.

The only things she leaves behind is the pendant given to her by the Goddess of Fates, which remains lying on the bed even after her body is gone.

PART 5: A WORLD WITHOUT "HER"

After taking care of official business, LFX goes to visit MYR's room only to find that she's gone. He takes her pendant, then demands the servants to tell him what happened, but none of them know what he's talking about. 

When he goes around looking for intel, he realizes nobody even recognizes the name of MYR. He goes so far as to visit her house, only to find that it's been dusty and abandoned for years. Her parents never existed, her guards are gone, and whatever would've happened in the world with MYR reverts to its original "novel canon" with the male and female leads. 

Meanwhile, his trusted subordinate Cheng returns with clear evidence that someone else is to blame for all the evil plots and schemes going on in the background of the novel. With mounting horror, LFX realizes that MYR was innocent all along...but it's already too late.

He does find one person who might still remember MYR: the other man who loved her, ex-crown prince Chu Yeguang. But he can't articulate his sense of loss beyond knowing that something is missing. LFX isn't about to tell him about the woman they both loved either, and simply gives him some alms and gold and tell him to go on his way. Chu Yeguang laughs at the gift before throwing it away. In the end, he decides to renounce the world by shaving his head and becoming a monk for the rest of his days.

When LFX is finally forced to accept that MYR is gone forever, his heart aches and the pendant he's holding nearly scalds him with its heat---

Love had reached its maximum. 

But so had loss.

It breaks into two pieces in his hands.

I thought this image song would've been nice to express LFX's grief haha~

Anyways, for the rest of the novel LFX lives his life just like "canon," meaning he becomes an excellent prime minster for the emperor and empress protagonists and vows to stay single. Others think he's just dedicated t the country, but in truth he misses MYR terribly and knows no one will understand him. 

40 years pass. One night, the Goddess of Fates appears by his bedside and asks if he regrets it. LFX says yes. She asks if he would be willing to give up everything to see MYR again---the cost being that everyone in this world would forget him and he would cease to exist in their world, just like MYR. He almost says yes--but hesitates, wondering what the country will do without him. The Goddess of Fates only scoffs and tells him he's not as important as he thinks, and that the capable emperor and empress is perfectly able to rule the nation after he passes since he's only an extra supporting character. LFX is all like ???? "What do you mean, extra supporting character," but the Goddess just tells him to make up his mind. LFX ultimately agrees and passes away that very night, ending his life in Conspiracies of the Northern Court.

PART 6: A WORLD WITHOUT "HIM"

We skip back to MYR's point of view. After her death in the novel world, she wakes in the real world on a hospital bed. We finally find out what the Goddess of Fates was warning her about in the first chapter: the accident hurt her back, making her unable to dance to her potential again. She's depressed--but more because of her failure to win LFX than her dashed dance career. 

Her best friend tries to comfort her and suggests she goes into acting, since it's also related to the arts and a popular second option for dancers who can't make it onstage. MYR wryly thinks that it sounds ridiculous to dedicate her life living out fantasies when she couldn't even fulfill her own, but ultimately agrees to try out when her mother pushes her to do something.

She ends up surprisingly popular and gains a bunch of fans along the way. A few years down the road, her agent suggests she auditions for a part in a drama adaptation of a popular webnovel. Surprise, surprise, it's Conspiracies of the Northern Court and they want her to try for the lead! MYR's first reaction is to reject it (she also hasn't read the novel for years), but in the end she can't resist and asks for a copy of the script. To her surprise, there's no mention of LFX at all.

She wonders if they cut him out and asks her agent about it, but she doesn't know. So MYR turns back to the forums and webnovel site where she first found him---only to find he's not there either! In fact, he doesn't seem to exist as a character at all, and the rest of the story wraps up neatly with other minor characters doing his jobs and roles instead. Now completely flummoxed and wondering if she read the wrong novel after all, MYR decides to ignore it and proceed with the audition as planned. But instead of playing the lead, she wants to try for the villainous second female lead, Li Siyan, instead.

In this version of the novel, Li Siyan ends up running away with the secret prince just like the version of Li Siyan in MYR's novel life. It's the closest MYR can get to "proving" that she really did live her life in that novel, and that LFX really existed. She gets the role and wins an award for best supporting female once the drama finishes its run because she fleshed out the character so well.

PART 7: REUNION

One day after a end of the year party, she leaves for her car only to lose her agent and get lost on the way to the parking lot. She happens to run into a young man in charge of catering for the event and apologizes to him, only for him to grab her by the arm. MYR is alarmed, but when she looks up, she freezes. 

It's LFX.

Or rather, it's the LFX of this world, AKA the greengrocer's son from the next city over. After coming to this world, he spent the past five years making a name for his family until he was catering for entertainment events in a chance to meet her. She rejects him, of course, but he grovels and pleas and basically treats her like the princess she always was in his heart until in the end, they acquiesce and get together as a famous actress and the CEO of a giant grocery chain. They get married, there are babies, and live happily ever after.

The Goddess of Fates claps her hands in satisfaction, happy that this novel has finally come to an end. The modified Conspiracies of the Northern Court without MYX or LFX lives on in the webnovel world, but in the epilogue we get a peek at an alternative novel world.

Here, MYR and LFX are happily absent, but Chen Xiao and the other guards are still alive and well, interacting with the rest of the cast in a parallel universe. To them, the happy couple are simply off to wander the world together while the rest of them have their own lives. Li Siyan and the foreign prince are in his country now with a fat and happy baby son. The pining ex-crown prince, Chu Yeguang, is now a wandering monk. Some say he searches for enlightenment, others claim he's looking for MYR. Whatever the case, the novel ends with him reflecting in the Winterflower Woods (now given freely to the royal family), smiling as the first plum blossoms flush pink with the dawn.

The theme of the story would have been--yes, dreams are only dreams, and sometimes they can be crushed, but if you loved and believed in them enough, they're still alive somewhere.

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I hope you enjoyed this plot summary! Realistically speaking, it'd probably take me a year to write out the whole thing, but here it is in its entirety. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them below! As for updates--I'm not sure if I'll be tackling those anytime soon since my interest in this plot has waned, but I can definitely write snippets of certain scenes upon request!