Sheng Mo Lan

Sheng Hong's fourth child and second daughter, by his concubine Lin Qinshuang. Liang Han's wife.

The most academic and artistic of the sisters, Mo Lan is highly intelligent and enjoys composing poetry. Mo Lan was raised by her mother to stand out and always strive to be the best. Despite being her father's favorite daughter, Mo Lan is deeply insecure about her status as a child of a concubine and can become cruel, violent, and vengeful when denied of what she wants, and frequently believes that others are slighting her. She often uses her mother's underhanded tactics to antagonize her sisters and gain her father's favor. Desperate to improve her social status (and with the help of her mother), Mo Lan seduces Liang Han and carries on an illicit alliance with him, an action that nearly jeopardized the entire Sheng family, and is hastily married off to Liang Han to salvage the family's reputation. She continues to emulate her mother's methods after marriage in hopes it would secure her husband's favor, but eventually learns that such tactics come with both consequences and shelf life. Her schemes sour her marriage, and she faces many difficulties and hardships from her choice to enter a high-up family due to duplicitous means.