She supported her fiancé, Ou-Yang Xu, for three years before he went to Eastern Capital to take the imperial exam, promising to marry her once he passed.

She meets Gu Qian-Fan, an upright commander from the Imperial City, and they become entangled in a big case in Jiang-Nan where he is framed and becomes a wanted man.

During that time, she finds out from Ou-Yang Xu's servant, Uncle De, that though her fiancé won third place in the imperial examination, he agreed to marry the daughter of an official, and can only take Zhao Pan-Er as a concubine instead of as his legal wife.

Along the way, she finds Sun San-Niang, a chef who was driven to suicide by her callous, cheating husband and ungrateful son, clinging to a large piece of driftwood.

Sun San-Niang becomes ill from overwhelming grief and is nursed back to health by Zhao Pan-Er and Gu Qian-Fan.

After successfully saving Song Yin-Zhang, the three sworn sisters decide to go to the Eastern Capital together to find the truth about Ou-Yang Xu.

He is unable to comply, and, convinced by Uncle De that she would be detrimental to his career, frames her for a violation, and has her driven out of the Capital in shame with her friends.

In order to remain in the Eastern Capital, Zhao Pan-Er, Song Yin-Zhang and Sun San-Niang pool their funds and start a small teahouse in an undesirable area.

"Dastardly" citizens were restricted in various ways, had fewer civil rights, and were ineligible for imperial examinations and public office.

It was not explicitly illegal for women from a "dastardly" background to become the main wife of an official, but it was severely frowned upon and considered to be a mark of poor character.

Zhao Pan'er's background as a business owner and former sinner was the primary motivation behind Ouyang Xu concealing his relationship with her and later on, reneging on marrying her as his main wife, the inciting incident which sets the story in motion.

The Empress was also a former entertainer, and her attempts to protect her identity, and her schemes against those who criticize her for being unworthy of her position, all play key roles in the story.

Afterwards, her father's former ministry subordinates begged, on her behalf, for forgiveness, they managed to change her status to a commoner, but she felt her time as a performer would always her greatest shame and embarrassment.

Unfortunately, there were still a lot of misunderstandings in their relationship & Pan-Er thought, at one time, Qian-Fan abandoned her like Ou-Yang Xu after getting a promotion to Commissioner of Capital Security Office.

He was, later, promoted to be a 5th ranked official title of Commissioner of Capital Security Office of the imperial city after the hat demon case.

In the early years, she is shown to be naive and confident personality, which always makes Zhao Pan-Er and Sun San-Niang worry.

After exposing Shen Ru-Zhuo's true face of charming beautiful young ladies for his boss, Minister Lin, to have an affair with, she completely sees through the false love between them.

He also thought he was keeping her safe from Gao Hui jealousy because women who showed interest in him were having unfortunate accidents, not realizing it was her nanny causing them.

In order to avoid being retaliated against by Zhao Pan-Er in the Eastern Capital, he flattered the emperor with his knowledge of Taoism when he was presented at the palace and was awarded the post of Deputy Envoy of Zuo Lang Zi-Ji Palace, with the mission to find the famous Taoist priest, Bao-Yi, and escaped to Xi-Jing.

He, finally, returned to the Eastern Capital with revenge in his heart and colluded with Qi Mu to bring down the Empress which failed.

Later, he was helped by Zhao Pan-Er, by chance, when a local officer was bullying him about the bad condition of the wharf following a terrible storm, and because of his status.

In the beginning, he tried to persuade Zhao Pan-Er to commit herself, because of her status, to Ou-Yang Xu as a concubine, but Sun San-Niang threw him into the river water in public in a rage.

Instigated by Gao Hui's Nanny, she went to the teahouse with her accomplice to frame Zhao Pan-Er and her friends for food poisoning but their ploys and actions ended up being exposed.

He seemed to love Song Yin-Zhang very much, but in fact, he wants to use her beauty to win the support of officials for himself, so as to maintain the dignity of the Shen family in the Eastern Capital.

Has the most prominent and powerful position of his life, he used deep scheming and unscrupulous means to achieve his goals, is the head of the famous treacherous ministers in the court.

Zhao Pan-Er told her, she had a marriage contract with Ou-Yang Xu which he broke and two people sent by her family, came to her teahouse to frame her for a murder, so she would be thrown in prison, then executed.

She found out her nanny had been sending people to harm anyone who showed any interest in Ou-Yang Xu, she relented and became friends with Zhao Pan-Er.

He secretly defied the sea ban for private gains, colluded with Lei Jing to discredit and kill Gu Qian-Fan.

After Ou-Yang Xu's Imperial exam results are published, he caught his prospective son-in-law at the top of the list, thinking since he came from a poor family, he could be easily controlled.

On discovering he was tricked, he tried to have Song Yin-Zhang and Zhao Pan-Er arrested, instead with the help of Gu Qian-Fan, he was flogged, detained in a prison and later sentenced to exile.