Shen Zhixue, a brilliant young woman from Bianjing, lost her mother at a tender age and suffered relentless framing and slander by her stepmother Liu Yuru—until her fiancé Cui Yu publicly broke off their engagement. Left kneeling in the freezing snowstorm, near death, she seized the hand of Lu Yuan, Imperial Surveillance Officer of the Imperial City Bureau, begging him for rescue—and for marriage. Seeing her unyielding spirit, Lu Yuan immediately took her under his protection.