It is a day of July, the weather is hot but every servant from the general's house is preparing for the celebration banquet of the first miss's birthday.

The girl is turning sixteen years old and after the feast she needs to enter the palace and marry the second prince.

She also has a little step-sister, Jing-an who always borrows her dresses and sleeps in her lap. Her sister is only one year younger and she's from the general's second marriage.

She treats her little sister with affection and care but her stepmother is a bit cold toward her.

The marriage with the second prince was decided from birth and that day was also the day when she lost her real mother. By the will of God, she survived but her poor mother couldn't make it because of too much blood loss. She grew up alone and became a fragile and sickly person. Her beauty is beyond imagination but the sickness dried her body and masked its beautiful aspect.

How attractive can a sick person be?

The banquet will take place in two days and every servant was busy with its preparations. Everything must look impeccable because they heard that this time the guests are of high rank, even the second prince will come to congratulate his future bride and give his best regards to her parents.

One day passes and the second prince arrives ahead the scheduled time. All the family of the general's house comes out to greet the esteemed guest, even the little sister comes to see her future brother in law. The celebrated one is not even informed of the prince's arrival, so she doesn't show up to greet him.

He confuses the second daughter of the house with the first one and makes her a compliment regarding her beauty, thing that amuses and makes the second daughter blush. Actually the second prince is a beautiful young man that makes the second daughter's heart to beat fast at first sight. She excuses herself saying that she's only the little sister and tells him that her older sister couldn't come to greet him because of her poor health condition. When he hears this he starts to be worried about his future relationship with the first daughter but he doesn't say his thoughts loudly.

The second daughter offers her company to her brother in law telling him that she'll show him around the house in her sister's absence.

It was probably her stepmother's idea to keep the second prince's arrival a secret, so that her pampered daughter could have a chance to privately meet the prince. Who knows what she was hoping to happen!

The first daughter only finds out in the evening about his arrival and hurries to greet him but she find him enjoying the gardens from the house with her little sister. No suspicious thought crosses her mind at that moment and she approaches them to say hello.

He asks his companion who this new girl is and remains surprised to find out that she's his future bride. As a strong and good looking man he was also hoping to have a strong and lovely wife, but instead the first daughter was a bit to pale and weak. They greet each other and he makes a funny remark: "my future bride, you won't lack food in the imperial palace".

Amazed by his affirmation, she says that the general's house also doesn't lack anything and because the atmosphere seemed a bit tense the little sister intervenes between them and changes the subject.

"My dear brother in law and sister", she says, "let's not argue because of something unimportant, instead we should better go and take the dinner together because ,especially, my sister needs to eat more".

The prince nods in approval and they all go to the dinning hall. All the evening the prince laughs and has a good time with his lively sister in law almost ignoring the ghostly first daughter, fact that doesn't offend the naive older sister.

She only sees her little sister as a ray of sun which invigorates the atmosphere, not as a potential rival.