The Story of Ming Lan

Original Title: 知否知否应是绿肥红瘦

Author: Guan Xin Ze Luan

Raw Link: Zhi Fou Zho Fou Ying Shi Lu Fei Hong Shou

Male Lead: Feng Shao Feng; Zhu Yi Long;

Female Lead: Zhao Li Ying; Zhang Jia Ning; Shi Shi

Synopsis:

Yao Yiyi, a clerk in a civil court, is reborn after a mudslide into the body of Sheng Minglan—the sixth daughter of the Sheng household, born to a concubine. Her mother, Concubine Wei, has just died from complications during childbirth, leaving Minglan a five-year-old girl without her father’s affection or a mother to plan her future.

Yao Yiyi feels that her once happy life has been stolen. The fate of a concubine-born daughter in ancient times is far too precarious—she has no desire to end up like Jia Yingchun from Dream of the Red Chamber. At one point, she even thinks it might be easier to simply lie in bed and fade away.

Everything changes when her grandmother takes a liking to her and raises her personally. Minglan’s adult soul, trying to imitate childish speech and behavior, instead reveals her precocious maturity and intelligence, winning her grandmother’s deep affection. Although she occasionally has conflicts with her siblings, under her grandmother’s protection she gradually adapts to this world and comes to deeply understand the “rules” governing concubine-born daughters in ancient society.

Sheng Minglan—a girl neither outstanding nor insignificant, forced to leave school—must now learn on her own how to survive in a household rife with schemes and intrigue.