Synopsis:
During the Qin Dynasty, a young scholar has high hopes of passing the school examinations to become a high ranking official. When that day comes, he will marry his long time lover of many years. But his hopes are tarnished when the Qin emperor has other plans for the scholar's lover...

Cast:
Main Characters:
Ron Ng
Tavia Yeung

Supporting Characters:
Eddy Ko as Ron's Father
Mary Hon as Ron's Mother
Liu Kai-Chi as Ron's Uncle (Eddy's younger brother)
Kwok Fung as Tavia's Father
Mannor Chan as Tavia's Mother
Carlo Ng as Emperor Qin
Lo Yuen-Yan as Empress
Sherming Yiu as Concubine
Akina Hong as Concubine
June Chan as Concubine
Chiu Ching-Yee as Concubine
Anthony Tang as Eunuch Choi
The teacher in Blade Heart as the School Master

Story
Ron was raised by his mother because his father, Eddy left his family a long time ago. Eddy was reluctantly forced to work on the Great Wall of China. The morning that Eddy left for his mission was the last time that his family saw of him. Under terrible working conditions, a strong and fit Eddy was no match for the gruelling and laborious hard work. He was treated like a slave and if he tried escaping, he would risk being sentenced to death. The place is heavily guarded, making any escape virtually impossible. Forging the Great Wall is like a road to death; it is just a matter of time before one becomes another corpse basking in the sun. The goal in this place is to survive for as long as possible in case some miracle appears to save everyone or until their working time is up. But no miracle came and Eddy finally succumbed to over exhaustion from the scorching heat, long working hours, little rest, dehydration, and hunger. The last image Eddy saw before his death w as one of him and his family happily eating dinner together. Eddy was able to rest in peace and died with a smile on his face.

Ron didn't have a father figure to teach him and guide him throughout his childhood. Ron was very poor and his mother had to work extremely hard to earn a living. Luckily Ron's uncle owns a pork shop and was able to help out Ron and his mother during these difficult times. Uncle Chi was like a father to Ron because he didn't have a family of his own. Ron also has a childhood friend that he knew since he was a little boy; her name is Tavia. The two of them would always play together and chat about everything. Whenever one of them has a problem, the other one would try and console him or her. But Tavia's parents own a noodle shop and would not allow their daughter to associate with a low class person like Ron. Tavia and Ron could only meet secrectly.

Gradually, Ron and Tavia become more than just friends. They fall in love with each other but they cannot tell anyone about it. Tavia knows that her parents will not approve of this relationship unless Ron has a high paying job. Tavia's parents are very greedy and selfish; they do not care about their daughter's feelings.  They just want Tavia to marry someone rich so they can live the rest of their life extravagantly. Ron decides to become a scholar and hopes to pass the examinations with flying colours. Once he graduates, he will have the credentials to apply for a high ranking government position. With such a job, Ron can ask for Tavia's hand in marriage without any problems from Tavia's parents.

But the school fees are very expensive and Ron does not have enough money to pay for it. Ron's uncle decides to sell his pork shop so that Ron can fulfill his dream. But Ron will not take his uncle's money because he knows that opening a pork shop is Uncle Chi's lifelong dream. Without the pork shop, Ron would not be able to stand here today; he would have starved to death years ago. Uncle Chi tells Ron that opening a pork shop is his lifelong dream, but seeing Ron with the person he loves the most is his biggest dream. Ron is truely touched by his uncle's words and accepts the money; he will not let his uncle's wish go to waste. He will study very hard to pass the examinations.

Ron has never attended school before so his Chinese is very poor. But Ron is a quick learner and very hard working so he is able to grasp the language in a short period of time. It turns out that Ron is a very gifted boy and possesses the talent to be a very successful scholar. Ron is also the teacher's favourite student because of his dedication to his studies; Ron doesn't fool around and takes his studying very seriously. Unfortunately, being the teacher's favourite has its downsides too becauase all the students dislike Ron due to the special treatment he is receiving from the teacher. Everyone else looks down on Ron and bullies him since he is poor and comes from a low class family. But Ron is determined to succeed no matter what kind of pain he has to endure. He feels that it will be all worth it in the end when he passes the examinations.

During Ron's school days, Tavia was by his side all the time to cheer him on. She would feed him fruits while he was studying and help him with the poems. It was considered to be a happy time for Ron and Tavia as they saw a bright future ahead for both of them - a day when they would no longer have to hide their relationship from Tavia's parents.

The emperor is extremely lazy and does not care about political matters. He lets Eunuch Choi take care of all the matters and spends all his time on useless things like watching women dance. Emperor Qin loves beautiful women and always drinks the night away. He has many concubines, but easily gets bored of them so he asks that Eunuch Choi help him search for more beautiful women to bring into the palace. One day, the emperor's favourite eunuch is in town and his eye is caught by the beautiful Tavia. He knows that if he can bring Tavia into the palace, then the emperor will surely reward him with more riches. Eunuch Choi eventually gets the emperor's permission to send Tavia into the palace to become the emperor's concubine. The emperor is young and naive. He easily gets tricked and manipulated by the people around him to their advantage.

When Tavia hears of this news, she is devastated. The only person she loves in this world is Ron. If she has to be with a man she doesn't love, she would rather die. But Eunuch Choi persuades her to agree because he says that if she doesn't agree, the emperor will be angered and send out a warrant to kill Tavia and Ron's family. Tavia has no choice but to agree and hide the truth from everyone including Ron. She decides to put on a show to make Ron believe that she is a very selfish woman who only cares about wealth and fame. This is so that Ron will let their love go because she knows that if she tells him the truth, Ron will not let the emperor take her away. Then Ron will surely get killed.

Ron is able to finally pass all the examinations and gets hired as a high ranking official in the government system. After learning of the great news, he decides to tell Tavia; he and Tavia have waited so long for this day. When he goes to tell Tavia, he learns from Tavia's parents that she has caught the eyes of the emperor and has already been escorted into the palace. Upon hearing this news, Ron is devastated, but he does not believe it. The Tavia he knows would never marry someone she has not met before and he knows that the one she truely loves is him. If she were to marry someone else, she would at least tell him; Ron and Tavia tell everything to each other. Ron decides to ask his uncle about this because he saw Tavia talking to him yesterday.

Uncle Chi says the same thing that Tavia's parents relayed to him earlier. Upon hearing the news coming out of his uncle's mouth, Ron has no choice but to believe everything. But Ron decides that he wants to hear it from Tavia herself and decides to head to the palace. Upon hearing this, Uncle Chi tells Ron that there is no use because no one would let him into the palace. Ron will not give up so easily and says that he will die trying if it is the last thing he does. In a fit of anger, Ron heads for the door, but Uncle Chi mentions something that makes Ron hold back. Uncle Chi asks Ron if he dies, what is his mother going to do.

Ron decides not to take the risk of losing his life and leaving his mother. Instead, Ron runs out of the house to the woods screaming and crying. He heads to a cliff and screams his lungs out asking "Why?! Why does it have to be this way?! What are you doing, Tavia?!" Eventually, Ron falls asleep and upon waking up in the evening, he finally accepts this matter as the truth. He heads back home and pretends nothing happened and decides to forget about Tavia. But for days on end, Ron still has trouble eating and sleeping. To him, finally becoming a high ranking official has no more meaning now and he hates any jobs that are related to the emperor's government. He decides to reject the job offer and continue his life working odd jobs in the town.

Tavia was not able to sleep well for the first few days and didn't eat anything. After a while, she was able to let Ron go and focus on being a concubine. Her days in the palace were very tough; she has no friends and all the other concubines are jealous of her because she is currently the emperor's favourite concubine. Tavia has no one to talk to and must love someone she doesn't love. But in the end, she still feels it is worth it if she can keep her family and Ron's family safe from harm. She just believes that it is fate that has set up her life like this. Perhaps in her next life, she will be together with Ron. Tavia hopes that Ron can understand her reasons for leaving him. She couldn't just run away with Ron because the emperor will kill their families and her parents would not leave their noodle shop to become a fugitive. Her parents want her to marry the emperor so they can live the rest of their lives in luxury. They don't care if their daughter is happy or not since they only care about themselves. The only time that Tavia ever saw Ron again was during her concubine march down the parading streets.

Not everything is all bad in the palace. Tavia is able to meet another concubine who shares the same fate as her. Sherming was sent into the palace years ago under a similar situation as Tavia. She was in love with someone else and they were planning on getting married, but she caught the eunuch's eye and was sent into the palace to serve the emperor. Sherming's lover tried to rescue her, but got killed in the process. Afterwards, the emperor got bored of Sherming and she was left to live the rest of her life in the palace alone as a forgotten concubine. Now Tavia and Sherming are best friends because they are the only two concubines who are not after wealth, fame, and power unlike the other concubines.

The empress and other concubines usually don't mind that the emperor likes freshness and easily forgets about his old concubines. But this new concubine named Tavia is making a name for herself. She has been the emperor's favourite for many months now and the emperor still doesn't get bored of her. They are all afraid that the emperor will make her the empress one day and give her more power than the rest of them. They decide to plot together to get rid of Tavia and the only way is for her to die. They do some background checks on Tavia to see if she had any lovers before she entered the palace. According to the Tavia's neighbors, she used to play with Ron, but Tavia's parents forbidded her to see him again afterwards.

The empress and concubines felt that he is the perfect scapegoat for the plan. The conspirators decide to write a letter to Tavia saying it is from Ron and that he wants to see her one last time as a childhood friend. Sherming accidentally hears about this plotting against Tavia and quickly leaves to tell Tavia, but accidentally knocks over a flower plant. The concubines quickly rush out the door to find Sherming hearing about their whole plan. They decide that the only way to keep their plan a secret is to kill Sherming. The concubines killed Sherming and said that she was trying to kill Tavia as their excuse for killing her. Since the emperor no longer cared or remembered anything about Sherming, he let the case go and did not perform any investigation.

Tavia still gets tricked into meeting Ron and ends up being caught red handed by the emperor who is now very angered. The emperor does not tell Tavia about this nor does he confront her. He decides to tell someone to send her a poisonous soup and Tavia dies drinking it. The emperor also sent a warrant to kill Tavia and Ron's whole family.

When Uncle Chi found out that Tavia's family was killed, he hurried back home to find Ron's mother and Ron. Uncle Chi lives in the same house as Ron, but before he got to the door, he noticed that the soldiers had already entered his house. He had no choice but to abandon Ron's mother and search for Ron at the market. He found Ron and told him to run away with him. The soldiers caught up with them so they ran into a deserted temple and hid in the kitchen. Along the way, Uncle Chi told Ron about Tavia's death and his mother's capture. In a fit of rage, Ron was about to rush out of the kitchen to kill the emperor.

But Uncle Chi stopped Ron in time and said that Tavia still loves him so that's why she went to look for him after reading the letter. That is why she died - she died because of Ron. Uncle Chi told Ron that he must go on living and not sacrifice Tavia's love. He must live on with Tavia's love since she wouldn't want to see him get killed trying to exact revenge. This was not really the case and Uncle Chi only made this up so that Ron wouldn't go off getting himself killed. After the speech, Uncle Chi pushed Ron out the window and told him to run as he diverted the soldier's attention. It was the only way that there was a chance for one of them to survive. Uncle Chi sacrificed his life to save Ron. Ron was devastated and ran off crying.

Ron's mother and uncle were brought to the prison for interrogation regarding the whereabouts of Ron. The soldiers tortured the two of them with whips and hot coal until they would speak of where Ron is hiding. Neither of them knew of his whereabouts, but they would not let the soldiers know. Ron's mother and uncle were hoping that Ron had escaped and the more that the soldiers questioned them of his whereabouts, the more reassured they were that Ron was safe. They didn't bite their tongues to commit suicide because they wanted to receive more news regarding Ron. Eventually, Ron's mother succumbed to the torture and passed away. But in her last moments, she had no worries since she was sure her son had already escaped. Seeing Ron's mother die, Uncle Chi decided to take his life too and shoved a piece of coal into his mouth, commiting suicide. They knew that after so many days, Ron would be safe somewhere far away from this trecherous place.

Ron did get far away from the dangerous place; he got on a bamboo boat and sailed to some unknown place. He found a local village there that was pretty scarce of people and decided to build a house on top of a hill. He spent the rest of his life there alone and without anyone knowing of his whereabouts. Many times, he would daydream about Tavia and his family; he was sure his mother and uncle were dead. It was great to be away from all the feuding and power struggles that was going on in the city. His new home was so peaceful and quiet; it was so comforting and relaxing.

Eventually, the emperor's empire was shattered by the peasant uprisings everywhere. Ron was glad that peace can once again be restored. By this time, Ron has grown into an old man. He spent his last moments gazing out at the sea. There, he pictured himself playing in the water with Tavia when they were younger. With a final breath, Ron closed his eyes for a final time and said he will go and see Tavia now.