On the day of the imperial matchmaking ceremony, the general pointed without a second thought at the concubine-born daughter in the back row, dressed in pale moon-white.
Everyone in the hall said she was incredibly lucky. Only she knew that the first thing he said to her on their wedding night was, “Marrying you is only a temporary arrangement. I already have someone I love.”
She didn't cry or make a fuss. She moved into the most remote courtyard and quietly went about her life. But the general kept visiting every few days. He stood up for her against gossip, took her to the morning market, and bought her little clay figurines shaped like puppies. She secretly spent three months sewing him a hair ribbon, then finally worked up the courage to offer it to him.
“It's lovely,” he said. She thought the ice around her heart had finally begun to melt.
But one remark outside the training grounds, “You shouldn't have touched her,” shattered her dream completely. On the day his first love moved into the estate, she handed him the divorce papers. He grabbed her wrist, losing control in front of her for the first time.
“You're not going anywhere.”
Too late. Someone whose heart has died once will never turn back.
I wrote the word "substitute" to my heart. The heroine never cried once from beginning to end, but she put the hairband into the box, took the initiative to retreat into the shadow of the palace wall, turned around and left after hearing the words "You shouldn't touch her" - every silence was more painful than crying. The male protagonist, a straight-faced man, also had enough hindsight. From being cold-eyed to standing in the yard every now and then, to taking her to see the peach blossoms, he fell into such a state of silence that by the time he realized it, he had already written the divorce letter. The abuse is intensive but not bloody, and the emotions are solidly foreshadowed. The final scene of standing under the locust tree and sending him off for the expedition in the fifth month of his pregnancy has great stamina. As the old saying goes, love comes first + chase your wife. Crematorium lovers, close your eyes and enter.