The Empty Contract: He Sacrificed His Wife's Name and Became Chancellor

Name: The Empty Contract: He Sacrificed His Wife's Name and Became Chancellor
Author: Fire Seeds for Pears

契空还：献祭妻名，他成了宰相

by Fire Seeds for Pears (火种取梨)

Status: Completed
Length: 159k Words
Genre: Ancient Romance
Subgenre: Ancient-Style Life
Updated: 5mo ago
Source: Fanqie

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Synopsis

She was the sacrifice he offered up for fame and success. He spent his life repaying her.

A scholar from a poor family, seeking success in the imperial examinations, signed a contract: he would sacrifice the most important person in his future. He had no idea that person was the musician who served tea at the music house.

He bought her freedom, and beneath a locust tree, they wed under the witness of heaven and earth. On their wedding night, his new wife gave him a cup of honeyed wine that killed his love for her. From then on, he saw her as repulsive. She knelt on broken porcelain, drank spoiled porridge, and was forced to take medicine that would make her infertile, while he looked on coldly for three years.

With her help, he became chancellor. She repaid his debts, kneeling until her knees were raw.

The day she was falsely accused of losing their baby and thrown out with a divorce letter, a merchant waited for her in the snowy night. “I'll take you away.”

A sorcerer from Lingnan told her that he did love her, but someone had cursed him. She used the blood from her heart to nourish a love-cultivating Gu, keeping watch for seven days and seven nights. On the fifth night, he briefly regained his senses and called her by her real name, only to turn cold again.

Only later did she learn that he had known all along about the child who had dissolved into indigo blood.

The Cui family fell. The Chongtian Army breached the city, and his closest ally betrayed him. On the city wall, he broke free of his bonds and repaid his debts with three knife strokes: the name he had stolen, the life he owed, and the love he had betrayed. His indigo blood ran dry, turning into flowers scattered across the ground. His soul dispersed.

She took in an orphan and spent the rest of her life growing flowers on Kapok Ridge. Year after year, they bloomed, fading from indigo to purple and white. Once the debt was repaid, the flowers faded.

Many years later, a limping old man, wrapped in snow and wind, came to her courtyard gate with an old pipa. She brought out two bowls of ginger soup. He took a sip, burned his mouth, and wept. Then he smiled and turned into a wisp of indigo smoke.

She leaned against the nameless tombstone and fell asleep. “I am not nameless. I am the name he left behind.”

The wind passed by, and thousands of flowers swayed together. Their name was “Return,” also known as “Repayment.”

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