The Story of Lu Yanqiu and Mei Yubing

Mei Yubing, a lady who has always been ill, has a step-mother, Zhu Mingfeng, who treats her badly, so bad that the step-mother even tries to replace Yubing with her own daughter, Mei Yanzhu, as the bride of the promising Lu Yanqiu. Deeply in love with Yubing, Yanqiu insist it has to be Yubing or there will be no bride.

During the day of marriage, Yubing drinks a cup of analeptic too strong for her by accident hence starts vomiting blood. Yanqiu's father, who hated Yubing's illness all along, takes the chance claiming she must be a burden and order his son to marry her sister, Yanzhu, instead. Yanqiu makes up a reason, saying he has urgent business in the army, then rushes out the door before the marriage is done. Seeing the left alone Yanzhu desolated, Liu Shiyuan, the scholar who has always been admiring Yanzhu, comforts her, from the chair then to the bed.

After the night, the bride in affair found a book on her desk, the book of chastity. She  thinks it must be her sister finds it all out hence plans to end her for good. Her plan is to poison Yubing by sending cakes, but it goes awry, her own mother eats the cakes and leaves none for the her step-sister.

Finding only her dead mother and Yubing in the whole house, it is only logical to switch the blame of murdering to Yubing...