The Ascent
Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Fang Jian sold herself to Gao Yunqu to save her parents, who had offended a powerful dignitary. She thought she would henceforth be an eagle with broken wings, never to fly again. Yet she never expected that Gao Yunqu would tutor her in her studies, guide her in reading people, build a ladder to the clouds for her, and send her soaring into the sky.
Twenty-five-year-old Fang Jian did not want to walk the path Gao Yunqu had paved for her. She walked further and further, climbed higher and higher, and unknowingly found herself standing opposite Gao Yunqu.
Gao Yunqu thought the bird she had raised was about to fly away, but in the end, she could not bear to break her wings. She never imagined that Fang Jian had never once thought of leaving her either.