[Marriage first, love later | Mutual secret crushes | Both virgins, one-on-one | A slow, steady romance]
Song Zhao has been married to Shen Xuan for three years. Every year, she returns to her parents’ home on the second day of the first lunar month and stays for just three days.
For her, those three days are the only respite from her stifling marriage.
The first year she returned, they sat far apart in the carriage, and he merely asked whether she was thirsty.
The second year, he stepped in to shield her from her difficult relatives, then waited quietly outside the study.
The third year, the lotus seeds, poria, and Songjiang cotton cloth she had casually mentioned had already been delivered to her parents’ home in advance.
Every year when Song Zhao stepped out of the house, she could always look back and see him standing beyond the threshold.
Year after year, the distance between them grew smaller.
Only later did Song Zhao learn that this marriage, which everyone else thought was cold and formal, was the result of his long-planned pursuit of the woman he had always wanted.
There is no transmigration, no rebirth, and no earth-shattering political intrigue.
Just two cautious, restrained people, slowly warming a sincere love amid the rhythms of everyday life.
