Lan Zhaoyu lost her parents at a young age. Fortunately, the Emperor and Empress took her in and treated her like their own daughter, showering her with imperial favor from an early age.
When she was seven, the Emperor and Empress decided to betroth her to the third prince.
Lan Zhaoyu was unwilling. Then she overheard the haughty, aloof third prince sneer behind her back:
"Hmph. She's spoiled and willful. Who'd want to marry her?"
Lan Zhaoyu flushed with anger, ran out, and shoved him to the ground. Then she went to the Emperor and Empress and wept in their arms. "Your Majesty! Your Highness! I'd rather become a nun than marry him!"
The Emperor and Empress felt sorry for her and promised to find her a suitable husband in the future.
Later, she did find a good match.
Her husband was a celebrated palace examination laureate, born into an eminent Jiangnan clan, gentle as jade and learned in the classics.
In three years of marriage, they played music and burned incense, boiled snow and brewed tea. She painted with her brush while he inscribed words with his poised wrist. Their books and paintings harmonized, and they lived a life that made them envy only the mandarin ducks, not the immortals.
Until that year, a palace coup suddenly erupted and rival factions fought for power.
In the end, it was the third prince, whom she had always disliked, who climbed over a mountain of corpses to sit on the throne.
That same year, Lan Zhaoyu fell into the water.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in the imperial palace.
Behind towering vermilion walls and layer upon layer of curtains, she was imprisoned in the secluded palace, with no hope of ever returning home.
*
The thing Wen Jingming regretted most in his life was leaving his wife for a time and obeying his mother's order to find a doctor for his cousin.
When news of her death by the river reached him, his hair turned white overnight.
For years afterward, he was consumed by endless grief and longing.
Then he unexpectedly learned that his wife was still alive, and was beside himself with joy.
But when he heard her voice again, it came from beyond the Emperor's hall. Held down by guards before the jade steps, he heard the muffled sounds of her sobbing from inside. His eyes nearly burst with rage, his heart torn to pieces.
#Aloof, obsessive prince -> proud young lady x gentle nobleman
#Forced love + a husband chasing his wife to the crematorium
#Content warning: Both male leads are virgins. The heroine has only had relationships with the second and first male leads.
#The ending is undecided, probably two endings
Theme: Do not wait until every flower has fallen before plucking a branch
