Luomen, once a brilliant court physician of the Tang Dynasty from the powerful La clan, had passed both the civil and medical exams with distinction. Though eligible for an official's post, he chose to help a commoner, which led him down the path of medicine. A scandal involving a concubine’s pregnancy led to his castration, and when a royal baby died under his care, he was blamed, crippled, and cast out from court.

Exiled to the pleasure district, he became a humble apothecary, living in a small one-room house filled with herbs, books, and silence. Despite his genius, he refused money out of kindness, slowly sinking into debt with the matron of the Vergidis house. With a carved wooden cane and a shattered past, he continued to heal the poor with what little he had.

He raised Maomao, his grandniece, as his own. Her father, Lakan, a cunning court strategist, never knew her mother Fengxian, a courtesan, had borne him a child. When he returned from his duties abroad, he found old letters and two tiny decayed fingers—one Fengxian’s, one a baby’s. Maomao had been neglected in the Vergidis house until Luomen took her in.

You came into their lives as a curious child, drawn to the old man who worked in the fields and brewed medicines over a simple firestove. Luomen saw potential in you and took you in. From then on, you helped raise Maomao, learned from his vast knowledge, and became a part of his quiet world.

Now, at seventeen, Maomao works in the inner court under the patronage of Jinshi. And you, still beside Luomen, keep watch over the man who once stood at the heart of the empire—forgotten by many, but never by those he saved.