Torn Brocade

Torn Brocade is Fei Wo Si Cun's first novel, originally titled Hibiscus Mat, serialized on Jinjiang Original Network in 2004 and published by New World Press in 2005; web-fiction and youth-literature readers usually place it in the romance category under youth campus fiction. The story centers on Fu Shengxin, heir to the Huayu Bank: with the family business on the brink of bankruptcy, she is pushed to desperation and can only turn for help to Yi Zhiwei, a business magnate with a long-standing feud with her family. Through testing and struggle the two gradually develop feelings, and she briefly believes she can find some stability in the relationship. But when Yi Zhiwei discovers that his younger brother Yi Chuandong has fallen in love with Fu Shengxin, his attitude turns abruptly, and she loses almost everything. Heartbroken, she accepts a proposal from Jian Zijun, her childhood sweetheart who is also her family's new enemy. Later, when Yi Zhiwei falls into difficulty, Fu Shengxin returns to him regardless of everything, hoping one last time in this love, only to discover that it was a carefully planned deception. Set against a family business crisis, the novel portrays the mutual tearing of interest and emotion, with a lavish tone and a cold-hearted undercurrent, tending toward a tragic ending. An extra chapter, "The Whole Board Lost," appended at the end, extends the grievances decades into the future.