The Legitimate Daughter Waited Ten Years, Only to Receive a Divorce Letter from the General

On the third day after the Prime Minister’s only legitimate daughter married into the General’s household, the emperor issued an urgent summons. The groom had to set off at once with troops to reinforce the front lines. As a result, the couple lived apart off and on for ten years. But after waiting ten long years, the Prime Minister’s daughter received not a devoted husband, but a letter of divorce. Enraged, her father, the Prime Minister, accused the General’s household of going too far: his daughter had waited alone in their home for ten years, while the General had returned with a son and a daughter from outside. And yet the General’s household still wanted to divorce her with a single letter. The old madam clutched the cane bestowed by the former emperor and defended her son. Before the assembled officials, civil and military, she berated the Prime Minister’s daughter, saying that although she was born to status and privilege and had been married into the General’s household for ten years, she had borne no children. Yet everyone knew that the General had been away at war for ten years. When could the couple possibly have enjoyed a harmonious married life? She even accused the Prime Minister’s daughter of being spoiled and arrogant, never sincerely treating her as a mother-in-law, and of being utterly unfilial. Humiliated by this, the Prime Minister’s daughter began to lose her mind not long afterward. She kept imagining that she and the General had been deeply in love as young people, and that they had married for love. In her madness, she accidentally fell into a well one day and died. Unable to bear the loss of her child, the Prime Minister’s wife was devastated and died of grief. The Prime Minister lost two of the people dearest to him one after the other, and before long, he followed them.