My Hair Turned White as Snow, but I Never Looked Back

I was once the happiest girl in all the capital.

My father was a founding general, my mother a refined lady from Jiangnan, and the Crown Prince, my older brother, said he would marry me and only me.

Beneath the crabapple tree, he carved me a wooden sword. On a snowy night atop the city wall, he promised me his kingdom as my betrothal gift.

But then...

All 137 members of my family died by his imperial decree.

I knelt in the snow for three days and three nights, but he would not see me.

My hair turned white overnight, and he ran me through the heart with his sword.

Clutching the last bit of warmth in my body, I leaped from the city wall. My blood stained the snow the color of crabapple blossoms.

When I woke again, I was a schoolteacher in a small village, with no memory of my past.

But he searched for me for three years, then knelt before me and said he was sorry.

My dark hair has turned white as snow. I will never look back in this life.

Jiang Jingyu, your vast kingdom and your belated remorse are no match for the three feet of snow before my family’s graves.

(A groveling-after-the-breakup story, except the fire’s already burned out and you’ve scattered even the ashes. She really never looked back, not even once.)