Can a Small-Town Butcher Uncover a 17-Year-Old Secret? In Pursuit of Jade (逐玉), a killer in the night forces Fan Changyu (樊长玉) to question everything. The story, set in a quiet corner of an ancient town, quickly moves from a simple life of selling meat to a high-stakes game of political revenge. Fan Changyu believes she is an orphaned butcher, but two brutal attacks on her home reveal that her late parents were not who they seemed.
As she digs deeper, she finds herself connected to a forgotten massacre that toppled generals and changed dynasties. The drama masterfully weaves her personal journey of survival with the fallout from a national tragedy, proving that the past is never truly buried.
The Butcher's Secret: A Life Built on Lies
Fan Changyu’s world is small and practical. She is a butcher, skilled with a knife, and content in her routine. She lives with her sister, Ningniang (宁娘), and her parents in a modest home in a town called Xigu Alley (西固巷). Her happiness is shattered when her parents are killed, reportedly by bandits. Suddenly, she faces a broken engagement and greedy relatives trying to steal her family home. To survive, she enters a fake marriage with a mysterious man she rescued, Xie Zheng (谢征). This act of kindness is meant to secure her property, but it inadvertently pulls her into a much darker current.
The peace is short-lived. Armed men break into her home, violently searching for something. They nearly kill her new husband and her little sister. Fan Changyu barely understands why. She is just a butcher. What could anyone want from her? The second attack confirms it is not random violence. Xie Zheng discovers the intruders were sent by Prime Minister Wei Yan. Their orders were clear: kill Fan Changyu and find a letter. This revelation transforms her from a victim of circumstance into a target of powerful political enemies. She begins to realize the simple story of her life might be a complete fabrication.
The Bloody Secret of Seventeen Years Ago
The truth about Fan Changyu is buried in the massacre of Jinzhou (锦州) City seventeen years prior. In the original story, her father was not Fan Erniu (樊二牛) the butcher. He was Wei Qilin (魏祁林), a former loyal soldier turned assassin for the powerful Wei Yan (魏严). He was given the Wei surname and later assigned to work under General Xie Linshan (谢临山). There, he fell in love with Meng Lihua (孟丽华), the only daughter of the respected General Meng Shuyuan (孟叔远). Their romance was a bright spot in a time of war, but it was built on a foundation of sand. When the northern Bei Jue (北厥) army attacked, the city fell. The Crown Prince was killed, General Xie was brutally murdered, and one hundred thousand soldiers died.
General Meng was blamed. He was accused of delaying critical grain deliveries, a crime that led to his forced suicide and eternal disgrace. But the accusation was a lie. Meng had received a secret order to divert his troops to rescue a young prince. He trusted the order and left the grain mission to another army group. However, the order was a forgery, and the military tally used to validate it was fake. The general who received the fake tally refused to move his troops. The soldiers in Jinzhou starved. The man who delivered the fake order was Wei Qilin. He was the perfect pawn, and he only realized his horrific mistake after Meng Shuyuan was dead and disgraced.
Love Across a Chasm of Blood and Revenge
Consumed by guilt, Wei Qilin faked his and Meng Lihua’s deaths. They escaped to the remote Xigu Alley, where he hid in plain sight as Fan Erniu, the butcher. He kept one piece of his past: the original handwritten letter from Wei Yan ordering the delivery of the fake tally. This letter was the key to clearing Meng Shuyuan's name and exposing the truth. For seventeen years, they lived in peace, but Prime Minister Wei Yan never stopped hunting for them. He knew the letter could destroy him. When his assassins finally located the family, Wei Qilin and his wife chose to die by their own hands to protect their daughters and ensure the letter reached a loyal old general, He Jingyuan.
This is why Xie Zheng, a man with his own hidden identity, is in the town. He is there to protect the sisters. As Xie Zheng’s noble birth is revealed, so too is Fan Changyu's true parentage. The butcher’s daughter is actually the granddaughter of the disgraced General Meng. The man she loves, Xie Zheng, is the son of the very general who was butchered in the original siege. Their bond, forged in survival and companionship, is suddenly caught between the truth of the past and the demands of justice. They must decide if their love can survive the revelation of what their families did to each other, or if the ghosts of Jinzhou will finally tear them apart.
