One Cup of Poison Wine, Ten Thousand Miles from Home

Zhang Yao serves as the Commander of the Northern Pacification Bureau, an imperial enforcer tasked with maintaining order in the capital of Great Liang. Despite his high-ranking position, he leads a reclusive and macabre existence, driven by a profound desire for death. He spends his free time collecting rare timber and sleeping inside coffin boards, while his only habit is to personally wash the bloodstains at Pichang Temple after executions. His sister, Zhang Min, cares for him, though she suffers from a chronic illness. Zhang Yao’s life intersects with Yu Lin, a brilliant young Vice Minister of Justice who secretly is a woman. Yu Lin rose through the ranks by drafting the Great Liang Code, earning the respect of her mentor, Zhao Heming. However, her career ended abruptly when she removed her official robes in open court to shield a female prisoner, exposing her true gender and violating the strict moral codes of the dynasty. She is sentenced to death by slicing.

The story’s central conflict emerges during the public execution of another condemned woman, Madam Liu. Yu Lin, awaiting her own execution the following day, refuses to kneel on the scaffold, defying the crowd and officials who seek to humiliate her. Zhao Heming intervenes, protecting her dignity and ordering her release from the execution frame, though her death sentence remains unchanged. After witnessing Yu Lin’s defiance and their brief eye contact, Zhang Yao becomes obsessed with the idea of seeking death at her hands. He learns that the corrupt prison warden, Wang Shaolian, plans to sell Yu Lin’s final night to clients as revenge for her past crackdowns on the prison’s illicit flesh trade. Determined to prevent this degradation and perhaps find his own end, Zhang Yao enlists the help of Du Lingruo, a eunuch official with connections to the prison.

Zhang Yao infiltrates the Ministry of Justice Prison disguised as a brothel customer, wearing a veiled hat and funeral clothes. He enters the forbidden chamber where Yu Lin is held, only to be ambushed by her. Yu Lin, weakened by torture but still sharp, uses a chain to restrain him. Zhang Yao refuses to fight back, having bound his own hands to ensure he cannot kill her. He reveals his identity and his wish to die, offering to help her instead. Yu Lin, recognizing him from a previous encounter where she had protected him during a public flogging, realizes his true nature. She shares a moment of unexpected camaraderie with him, eating a peach that his sister had given him. Rather than killing her, Zhang Yao decides to assist her in her own plan for justice.

Yu Lin intends to use the encounter as evidence to put Wang Shaolian on trial for his crimes against female prisoners. She hides one of the indecent objects used by clients as proof. When Wang’s superiors, including Zhao Heming, burst into the room, Zhang Yao kneels and accepts arrest to support Yu Lin’s fabricated courtroom scenario. Zhao Heming, furious at the violation of his student, rescues Yu Lin and arrests the corrupt officials. In the aftermath, Yu Lin reveals her ultimate goal: to amend the Regulations on Criminal Judgments by using herself as the precedent. She wants the law, rather than private vengeance, to protect common women from exploitation. The story concludes with Yu Lin pleading with Zhao Heming to help her achieve this legal reform before her execution, setting the stage for a struggle between the rigid code of the state and the moral imperative to protect the vulnerable.