Peach Blossom Ferry: I’ll Think of You for the Rest of My Life

A downtrodden concubine vs. a cold-faced young master merchant

[Republican-era romance | Married first, love later | Both virgins | Nontraditional BE | Mutual healing | Age gap | 1v1]

Overnight, I became the Huo family’s ninth concubine.

Rumor had it that the cold-faced young master had already lost several wives.

On our wedding night, he gripped my chin. “Don’t die too soon. I don’t want the trouble.”

I thought I wouldn’t survive three days.

But then he began tying my shoes himself, making me finish every bowl of tonic soup, and holding me in his arms while we watched movies.

“Outside, call me Young Madam. At home, you’re my wife.” He kissed my forehead in front of the moon gate. “Say the right name, and you may come in.”

On the day I returned to my family home, the matriarch revealed the truth:

“He was the one who chained you up for three years! He was responsible for the deaths of all his previous wives!”

Before I lost consciousness, I heard him cry out my name in anguish.

When I woke, he was on one knee, laying bare the darkness of his past.

“I did dirty work for the military. I have blood on my hands. If you’re afraid, I’ll let you go.”

I looked at the man who picked fish bones from my meals and held my hand tightly on snowy nights, and tears streamed down my face.

“I’m not leaving. I don’t care about your past. I only want your present and your future.”

He spent his life protecting her, and she spent hers waiting for him.

It turned out the deepest love isn’t about staying together. It’s about this:

You left, so I’ll live the best life I can in your place.

Three generations of the Huo family, one lifetime of deep love. In the turbulent years of the Republic, a man and a woman made poetry of their life together.

If you never leave, I’ll never forsake you. If you go first, I’ll protect our home.

Dedicated to all the lovers who remain devoted to each other through the years.