[Regent Prince x fallen noblewoman], short story, bad ending.
They knew each other as children, but in the end, the cruelty of human nature proved too much.
Ten years of devoted love, three years imprisoned in a living hell.
Su Wanqing loved Gu Yanci for half her life. The apricot blossoms bloomed for him in her youth, and every year she gave him all her tenderness. She was the only light in his endless darkness, the sole salvation in his years of hardship.
But a blood feud lay across their path, and layers of misunderstanding sealed off their true feelings.
When her family was brought to ruin, she knelt through the freezing winter winds and snow. What she received was no mercy for their past, but every torture imaginable, inflicted by his own hand. To atone, she became a lowly servant, enduring humiliation after humiliation. To vent his hatred, he cut the blood from her heart with his own hands and planted an incurable cold curse in her, leaving her to suffer day and night as it gnawed at her bones.
She endured every grievance and drained every last drop of love, withering from a bright young woman into a shriveled shell. At last, her heart turned to ash and she left this world, leaving behind just one wish: that they forget each other.
When the dust finally settled, the truth came far too late.
Only then did he realize that all his hatred had been absurd, and every torment had been inflicted on the wrong person.
She had been innocent all along and had never wronged him, yet he had personally buried the rest of her life.
Later, he held all the power in the world, cleared the family's name, and ruled over vast lands, but year after year he kept lonely vigil by her grave in the hills.
The world was filled with countless blossoms, and the years went by, but Su Wanqing, whose eyes had always been filled with him, was gone forever.
His long life held nothing but endless regret. His days lay barren, and there was no way back.
Theme: Hatred lasts longer than love.
