Farewell to Spring Branches

Shen Yunci is the most beloved Princess Zheluan of Da Qi. Raised in the depths of the palace from childhood, she has gentle features and depends wholeheartedly on her tutor, the young general Ruan Yue.

Born into a family of generals on the frontier, Ruan Yue excels in both letters and arms. Steady and restrained, he is ordered to enter the palace as the princess's study companion, watching Shen Yunci grow from a little girl with cropped hair into a graceful young woman. Beneath the spring branches, the girl looks up at him and asks, “Yue means the shade of a tree. Master, will you always shelter me from wind and rain?” Ruan Yue silently promises that he will, concealing his secret love beneath the roles of sovereign and subject, master and disciple. He thinks that once he has pacified the border and cleared the dangers from court, he can lay down his burdens and ask to marry the young girl he has protected for half his life.

But the imperial power struggle is turbulent, and the grudges of the previous generation come crashing down. Burdened by his family's blood feud, Ruan Yue plots at every turn, raises an army, and forces his way into the palace, bringing Shen Yunci's father's dynasty to an end with his own hands. In a single night, the imperial palace falls, and all their former tenderness turns to blades. Everyone says Ruan Yue will kill the emperor and seize power, then marry Princess Anyang and confine Princess Zheluan, once the apple of his eye, deep within the palace.

But Ruan Yue does not. Shen Yunci is trapped in a lonely courtyard, watching her former tutor take everything upon himself to keep her safe. She cannot believe he would stand beside her elder sister, and love and hatred tear at her heart. She questions him again and again: when rumors that he wants to kill her father and marry her sister are spreading everywhere, if he now says he loves her, is he deceiving the world, or himself?

All of Ruan Yue's cruelty is a disguise. Marrying Anyang is a political bargaining chip, and Shen Yunci's confinement was secretly engineered by Anyang. He fought for power with everything he had, hoping to eliminate every threat and give her a peaceful life, only to push her into the depths of despair with his own hands.

On one side are the loss of a kingdom and the pain of imprisonment; on the other, the stirrings of young love and years of devotion. Shen Yunci cannot tell whether the cold general before her is an ambitious avenger or the young man who once promised to be her sheltering tree. Ruan Yue shoulders every accusation alone, quietly thwarting the plots against her at court. He lets her misunderstand, hate, and distance herself from him, never daring to reveal even a fraction of his troubles.

Spring winds bring green to the palace branches once more. The promise they made to stay together has ultimately shattered amid schemes and hatred. A lifetime of love, half a lifetime of opposition, beginning beneath spring branches and ending in separation. This love, divided by a nation's bloodshed, begins with a tragic ending written from the start, then, after every hardship, reaches its long-awaited fulfillment. In the end, the two find peace together, year after year, and those who love sincerely are rewarded.

Theme: Period Romance