After the Divorce, My Ex-Husband Came Looking for Me

(Blurb from the male lead's perspective; they reunite at the beginning)

Second chances | The husband chases his wife after losing her | She flees while pregnant

Pei Zhuo was born into the Hedong Pei clan. From childhood, he lived in spotless luxury, surrounded by attendants. Once he entered government service, his career soared. The emperor relied heavily on him, and while still young, he rose to the post of Vice Director of the Chancellery. Even when the emperor offered him a princess's hand in marriage, he turned it down.

Yet everyone in Chang'an knew that he had once been divorced without his consent. His former wife left him a divorce agreement and vanished. She was a commoner from a family that had farmed for three generations.

For a time, Pei Zhuo had looked down on his former wife, a country girl. If his grandfather hadn't been beyond the help of medicine and in need of a wedding to bring good fortune, he would never have married a woman so ignorant, timid, and utterly lacking in grace.

Their three-year marriage was a contract. He gave her every courtesy, both in public and in private, and that alone was an honor to her.

But she had secretly taken contraceptive medicine for all three years behind his back. Then, while he was away putting down a rebellion, she dared to leave a divorce agreement and disappear.

In the fourth year after their divorce, he was appointed military governor of Zhejiang West Circuit and met Li Ciyin in Suzhou.

She was nothing like the timid woman she'd been in Chang'an. Without that familiar face, Pei Zhuo might not have recognized her at all. The instant their eyes met, a surge shot through his limbs.

“Ciyin,” he murmured, calling her by name.

She paused, then replied, “I don't know the Military Governor. Please show some restraint.”

“Don't know me?” Pei Zhuo furrowed his brows.

Then a little girl ran into her arms and called her “Mother” in a sweet voice.

Four years apart, and she already had a child.

Pei Zhuo thought he ought to let go. But after returning home, he couldn't help wondering who the child's father was.

How could he possibly let go?

If he had truly moved on, he wouldn't have given up the chance to advance his career and requested a transfer to her hometown. He only wanted to see with his own eyes whether she was happy without him.

Later, when he heard that Ciyin was going to become engaged to someone else for the child's sake, he finally couldn't sit still and went to find her.

The plum rains fell softly, and the sky was dim.

Pei Zhuo gripped Ciyin's wrist and pressed her against the door, asking, “Don't you just want to find Canniang a father?”

His family background, appearance, and talent: what did he lack?

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads' first love and only partner, happy ending. The child is the male lead's.

2. Set in a fictional Tang dynasty during the An Lushan Rebellion.

3. The characters are flawed and imperfect.

4. The blurb and the novel's narrative don't follow the same order.

Theme: Better never to meet than to meet and part; what is love compared to indifference?